Have you ever hurt yourself while doing an experiment?

Question: Have you ever hurt yourself while doing an experiment?
- Keywords:
  experiment,
  hurt,
  injury
Asked by anon-353589 on 16 Mar 2023.
- Grace Roper answered on 16 Mar 2023:
  
  I haven’t done anything major, but I have pricked my finger with a needle a couple of times. Luckily they were always clean!
- Maike Wilschnack answered on 16 Mar 2023:
  
  Luckily nothing serious ever happened to me. I cut myself at a broken pipette once when I didn’t pay intention.
  Also, one time I splashed wastewater over my hand. It wasn’t dangerous or painful, but my hand smelled like wastewater for two days.
- Fabio Nudelman answered on 16 Mar 2023:
  
  Nothing serious but yes. Once a glass tube broke in my hand when i was trying to seal it with a rubber cork and cut my finger.
- Arno Kraft answered on 17 Mar 2023:
  
  Yes, I was a second-year student at university and, when trying to push a PVC tubing onto a condenser a bit too carelessly, the glass broke off and cut a gash into my left hand. This was long before the advent of accident report forms. Still, the wound needed to be sutured in the A&E of a hospital. Since I had worked in the hospital before going to university, people knew me and it was “nice” visiting the old place again. Accidents do happen and usually when you don’t expect them. And a scar reminds you.
- Maryam Sani answered on 17 Mar 2023:
  
  Nothing serious, we have to be very careful and safety conscious when doing experiments. A long time ago we didn’t have pipette fillers, we used to pipette liquids by mouth. If the liquid was sucked up too quickly through the pipette it could enter the mouth, I did that a couple of times which was unpleasant.
- Maryam Sani answered on 17 Mar 2023:
  
  Nothing serious, we have to be very careful and safety conscious when doing experiments. A long time ago we didn’t have pipette fillers, we used to pipette liquids by mouth. If the liquid was sucked up too quickly through the pipette it could enter the mouth, I did that a couple of times which was unpleasant.
- Martin McCoustra answered on 17 Mar 2023:
  
  I’ve cut myself a few times… and wrapped my knuckled on the stainless steel of our chambers. But the worst things that happened to me was when I was a research student. We had a small explosion in the lab and I lost part of my hearing for 24 hours.
- Ai-Lan Lee answered on 17 Mar 2023:
  
  Nothing serious. Burnt myself a few times taking something hot out of the oven (but I do this far more often in the kitchen to be honest).
- Jo Ellis answered on 18 Mar 2023:
  
  A couple of times by broken glass, not too serious but did observe that blood goes purple mixed with toluene.
- Alana McNulty answered on 24 Mar 2023:
  
  Yes, I once had my finger crushed by a barrel of soil I was using for experiments! It was a lesson in communication!
- Jade Markham answered on 31 Mar 2023:
  
  I have sliced my thumb on a broken piece of glassware and accidently stabbed myself with a needle

Question: Have you ever hurt yourself while doing an experiment?

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