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Asked by jamaicanbacon to Ben, James, Jen, Michael, Susanna on 12 Mar 2013.
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Susanna Martin answered on 12 Mar 2013:
My work isn’t that dangerous as I mostly work with schools! To make sure that I don’t do anything too dangerous or risky I have to complete an ethics form before I do any of my research projects. For instance when I wanted to take dataloggers into schools and ask students to use them on a river study, I had to think about the risks to the students in the river, and to the equipment if they dropped it. I also have to make sure that my experiments are fair so if I think using a data logger will help the students a lot in their exams and school work I need to make sure all the students get a chance to use them so it is fair. Other than that my work is quite straightforward!
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Jen Todd Jones answered on 12 Mar 2013:
@jamaicabacon Most of my work isn’t very dangerous (unless you count papercuts!) but working with MRI machines can be dangerous and you have to be very careful around them. MRI machines are actually made up of several giant magnets so going anywhere near one with magnetic metal is very dangerous since the huge magnets will pull the metal into the machine at a very fast pace. If you’re inside the machine then the metal may fly into you! For this reason we have to be extremely careful when working around the machine.
One of the giant magnets spins at a very fast pace indeed all around your body every few seconds. Once an MRI machine is switched on it can never be switched off or it will be completely broken, since the movement of this magnet has to be constant. The movement of that magnet creates a lot of heat energy since you may have learned in science class that kinetic, or movement, energy produces heat. To keep the machine cold we have to pump liquid helium around it, that’s right, the kind you put in baloons and makes your voice go funny when you inhale it! That is cooled to a very very low temperature, far below zero degrees celsius and while this is mostly safe on very rare occasions the liquid can leak, turning back into gas as it enters the room where the machine is and takes all of the oxygen out of the air, meaning people inside that room can’t breathe! Like I said this is a very rare event, but it is something we must always be aware of.
Having said this MRI scanners are very safe, if you need to have a scan don’t be alarmed the people around you, like me, will be trained and it’s extremely likely that nothing bad will happen at all!
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James Stovold answered on 18 Mar 2013:
Generally the most dangerous part of my work is actually working in the lab with the robots, as they can go wrong and you can’t always predict what they’re going to do! This is why we have a separate control room and observation area (which is protected by a cricket net in case a flying robot goes wrong).
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