• Question: what is the most dangerous experiment you have ever done?

    Asked by madi007 to Alexander, Josh, Serena, Simone, Stuart on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Josh Makepeace

      Josh Makepeace answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Hi madi007! Interesting question. For me, a lot of the work I do is with a set of elements called alkali metals (like sodium, potassium and lithium). These metals can be quite dangerous, they tend to catch fire if you get any water on them (there are some great videos on Youtube)! So I have to be very careful with them. Mostly when I’m using them I work in a glovebox, which keeps out oxygen and water (there’s a picture of it on my profile).

    • Photo: Stuart Archer

      Stuart Archer answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      One of the chemicals I made earlier on in the year involved boiling it’s parent chemical in a liquid called bromine. It’s a halogen, and these are all pretty toxic – a couple of lungfulls is enough to kill you! I had to wear a full face shield and thick, elbow length gloves to handle it.

    • Photo: Alexander Munnoch

      Alexander Munnoch answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      The potentially most dangerous (although we took every precaution we could think of so we were safe in doing it) was in Grenoble (France) at the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility).
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Synchrotron_Radiation_Facility

      We were flowing methane (explosive) through an 800’C tube packed with catalyst powder, cracking the methane to carbon (flamable) and hydrogen (very explosive) whilst firing synchrotron x-rays through it all!

      There’s a picture of me setting it up on my profile page (2nd last in the my typical day section).

Comments