When you hear the word 'scientist,' it usually conjures an
image of a sterile room with a person in a white lab coat surrounded by test
tubes, Bunsen burners, and beakers with bubbling lab experiments. But in
reality, there are many scientists working in various fields of discovery whose
'lab' is far removed from that stereotypical image--scientists who do their
work in the field. I read an article about scientists who work on location rather than in a lab…the
ones whose labs are out there, in
dangerous places and situations where most of us would never go.
So, in no particular order, here are nine of these dangerous
scientific work locations.
1) Inside Volcanoes
When you think of geologists your first thought is usually
the study of rocks and various landforms, something safe and basically stable.
But for the branch of this particular science known as volcanology, things are
definitely less stable and a certainly a little hotter. Having been to Mt. St.
Helens, Washington, not long after the explosive eruption and viewing the
devastation first hand, I'm very familiar with the story of David Johnston, the
thirty-year-old volcanologist who was on duty at the time and was one of the
fifty-seven people who died in the eruption. Volcanologists study the intense
heat and chaos inside active volcanoes, and recently a team of three
researchers descended inside the Marum Volcano on Ambrym Island off the coast
of Australia to study lava flows inside. Wearing a heat-resistant suit, one of
them descended 1200 feet into the volcano’s crater to capture video footage of
the lava's movement. Normally, scientists use robotic cameras mounted to small
helicopters or drones to do this extremely dangerous work.
2) Tornado Country
The movie Twister
gave us a good look at what storm chasers do, and those who live in the part of
the U.S. referred to as Tornado Alley see the results of their work on the news
when the storm conditions are present that produce tornadoes. Collecting data
on storms is a tough process. Getting close to a tornado is risky on a good
day, and self-proclaimed storm chasers run that risk all the time. Even with
technology such as Doppler radar giving us the overall picture of a severe storm,
some scientists claim there is some data that can only be gathered at ground
level. One of the most noted tornado researchers, Tim Samaras, routinely drove
in front of tornadoes to place cameras and pressure sensors to record the
velocities of objects swept up by the storm. Unfortunately, in 2013 Samaras,
his son, and another storm chaser died in an Oklahoma tornado.
3) Biosafety Level 4
Labs
All the news these days is about the Coronavirus which has
been elevated to the status of a pandemic. Laboratories that deal with germs
and diseases that can be dangerous or fatal to humans are given a biosafety rating from one to four.
Facilities that deal with Level four are where the really bad stuff happens.
One of the most notable is the NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases) integrated research facility located at Fort Detrick,
Maryland (pictured here). The laboratory is housed in a three-story office
building—an airtight, pressurized environment restricted to only a select
number of researchers. The facility has airlocks that separate it from the
outside world and anything that leads outside the building, such as light
fixtures or electrical outlets, is sealed in epoxy to prevent even a single
germ from escaping. Scientists are given a seven-minute showering with
virus-killing chemicals before they leave.
4) Underwater Caves
The ocean is a massive mystery to humanity, covering the
majority of the Earth’s surface. Even though it's part of our planet, we seem
to know more about outer space than we do the depths of our oceans. One of the
most interesting areas under the ocean's surface are what are known as blue holes, underwater caves that can
reach as deep as six hundred feet below sea level. These caves have difficult
topography. They vary in size from massive, sprawling caverns to holes barely
big enough to admit a human. Diving there can be very dangerous with
unpredictable currents. Despite the dangers, scientific rewards are huge with
both biological and archaeological finds waiting to be discovered.
5) Tree Canopies
Forest ecosystems are made up of distinct layers, each with
its own climate and variety of plants and animals. It's a simple task to study
the layers nearest the ground, but botanists have lots of questions about
what's happening up above. And that's where canopy research comes in.
Scientists at Humboldt State University climb to the top of trees that can
exceed 350 feet in height, anchoring their bodies to the trunk. From that risky
perch they can observe the canopy ecosystem…as long as they don't lose their
balance. At the top of the trees, researchers have discovered a whole ecosystem
of moss, lichens, and even whole new trees and bushes growing from dead stumps.
6) Amundsen-Scott Station
Originally built by the United States government in 1956,
the Amundsen-Scott Station sits squarely on the south pole. With temperatures
ranging from minus 13.6 degrees Celsius (minus 56.48 Fahrenheit) on a nice day
to minus 82.8 degrees Celsius (minus 181.04 Fahrenheit) when winter is in high
gear, it's one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet. Even though
blizzards and intense winds are common, astronomers spend months at the station
because the six months of total darkness during winter makes Amundsen-Scott a
perfect place to observe the night sky. Other researchers study the movements
of the Antarctic ice sheet—the station itself moves about thirty-three feet a
year as the ice drifts.
7) Aquarius Lab
Operated by the National Oceanic and Aeronautic
Administration, this deep-sea science station comes with a little twist. The
human body is only capable of staying underwater for a short period at a time
because decompression sickness (commonly referred to as the bends) can cause incredible damage when gas bubbles form and
disrupt tissue. Some scientists have long-term research projects that need to
happen in deep water, so they do it at the Aquarius Lab. This facility rests on
the sea floor outside of Key Largo, Florida at a depth of fifty feet.
Researchers spend up to ten days underwater at a time, studying the nearby
coral reefs.
8) Inside Hurricanes
Here’s another meteorological condition where some
scientists like to get a little too close. The National Oceanic and Aeronautic
Administration employs a number of flight meteorologists who take airplanes
into the eyes of hurricanes to gather data on the storm's strength and
direction. They use two planes—one is a Gulfstream G-4 that has the easy job of
circling the storm's funnel, the second is a smaller propeller plane that
actually penetrates the fast-moving wind to fly right to the eye of the storm. In
addition to using Doppler radar on the plane's tail, they also release a device
called a dropsonde that transmits pressure and humidity data.
9) Outer Space
And finally…there is literally no environment as hostile to
the human body as the vacuum of space. Long-term weightlessness has negative
effects on muscle tone, bone density and the immune system. Exposure to
radiation in low-earth orbit comes at levels ten times higher than the normal
dose on the Earth's surface. And there's also the fact that outer space doesn't
have any of that oxygen stuff our bodies need to function. Experimentation in
outer space has led to a number of fascinating discoveries in fields as diverse
as astronomy and cancer medicine.
And there you have a sampling of dangerous locations some
scientists refer to as their lab (minus those white lab coats, of course).
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