• Question: What is the most dangerous/scary thing that's happened to you when you've been out collecting data for research?

    Asked by shannontillett to Debbie, Glyn, Jon, Kat, Nicola on 12 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by jackie1896, rc0000715.
    • Photo: Jonathan Stone

      Jonathan Stone answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I once slipped whilst on a 2 day hike through a mountainous jungle in Guatemala to get to a volcano. I slipped whilst walking down this steep, dry river bed. I slid and stopped about 1m away from a 50ft dry waterfall! I only stopped because my camera strap caught itself on a rock. I was very lucky.

    • Photo: Nicola Fletcher

      Nicola Fletcher answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I whacked my finger one day when I was in the lab working with Hepatitis C. I was really scared I cut it, but thankfully it was ok.

    • Photo: Debbie Crockard

      Debbie Crockard answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I got caught in a really strong rip tide while doing a dive survey, panic kicked in and I tried to swim agains’t the current (the last thing you should do) I was just wearing myself out until my brain kicked back into gear and I found a rock to hold on to. I then put up my emergency float and when I could see the boat overhead I headed to the surface – but I had used a lot of air up and was very lucky!

    • Photo: Glyn Barrett

      Glyn Barrett answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I was collecting mud from the bottom of a lake. I didnt take many precautionary measures and when I got back to the lab I found out that the mud contained really dangerous organisms like Clostridium botulinum which is a bacteria which produces a really potent neurotoxin which can cause paralysis. Funnily enough the toxin is used in the cosmetics industry and is called botox! Scary that people would want to put it in their bodies!

    • Photo: Kathryn McMahon

      Kathryn McMahon answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Well, all my research is in the laboratory, so I don’t have any really exiting stories – we have lots of rules to protect us from dangerous things at work. I do work with some fairly nasty chemicals though. Phenol:chloroform is something I use a lot in the lab- if you spill a large amount of it on your skin, it will kill you. I always use it in a fume hood, for that reason.
      I’ve also done quite a lot of radioactive work. That can seem a bit scary as you have to use these special monitors to check if you’ve spilt any and they make a really alarming noise when you have. Small amounts aren’t harmful though, although I wasn’t allowed to use it when I was pregnant.

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