-
Asked by 0mnomcookie to Ailsa, Evan, James, Ryan on 22 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by 09hopwelh2.
-
Ailsa Powell answered on 22 Jun 2011:
There are lots of things in science that are dangerous, which is why you shouldn’t be running with them at all!
I would say spilling a container of liquid nitrogen on yourself may be more dangerous than spilling acid on yourself (depends on the type of acid of course). Acid may just burn your clothes or it may burn your skin, but you can wash it off and the worst you would have is a scar. If you spilt liquid nitrogen on yourself you may have frozen your tissue and then it would be dead – like frost bite that Arctic explorers get. If I spilt a container of liquid nitrogen on my hand, my hand is small enough that irreversible damage could occur and I could lose fingers!
I’m always careful when carrying any chemical – lots of them are quite nasty, whether they do immediate damage like acids, alkalis or liquid nitrogen or are more long term and build up in your body to make you ill in the future (I work with some chemicals that are thought to cause cancer).
Of course I also work with high intensity X-ray beams. If I got stuck in the room when one was switched on I would be suffering from severe radiation exposure 🙁
-
-
Evan Keane answered on 22 Jun 2011:
There are so many hazards! I would say anything radioactive or anything that gives off strong gamma-ray or X-ray emission would be the worst, because that could kill you immediately, or if the dose was lower you would be still certain to die but it might just take a few days (and you’d be in awful pain the whole time!).
Actually Ailsa, can’t liquid nitrogen kill you another way too? Does it bind to oxygen and therefore if you were in a small room with window close it would eat up all your oxygen and you would sufficate? I thought that was a possibility too.
Science can be dangerous. But it is always fun! 😉
-
Ryan Ladd answered on 22 Jun 2011:
Like the others said, there’s lots of things in science that are extremely dangerous!
For me personally, the biggest danger is getting electrocuted, because we have a lot of water and electricity. Either that or getting hurt by the laser we use in our lab for measuring water flow – it’s very easy to damage your eyesight with a powerful laser like we have.
Comments
thedoctor2000 commented on :
RUNING AROUND WITH A LIT NUCULIA BOM
albob11 commented on :
can acid cut through anything?
Ailsa commented on :
No. Different acids will react with different things. Sometimes it’s the heat of them reacting that can cause damage and sometimes is the by products of the reaction that cause the damage. Acid rarely just cuts through something, you will see a reaction – gas given off as something gradually dissolves.
Ailsa commented on :
Yes Evan you are correct. In our labs where we have a lot of liquid nitrogen we have oxygen alarms to let us know if too much nitrogen is evaporating and the oxygen levels are getting too low. We can get out quickly if they go off, otherwise you would die very quickly.