• Question: Have you ever experienced danger when experimenting/researching, and if so, does it excite you or make you scared?

    Asked by pommedeterre to James P, Davie, Gemma, James V, Nuala on 25 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by tiadollyday.
    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Hi pommedeterre,

      My science these days isn’t very dangerous, my biggest risk is falling off my chair while sat at my computer or spilling my coffee on myself! Bit boring really! 🙂

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Hi pommedeterre and tiadollyday,

      I don’t think I’ve ever been really scared doing my job. It’s always a little dangerous being on a volcano, because you never know when they might erupt. But in reality all the volcanoes I’ve been to have been in relatively calm periods and unlikely to do anything. They have had boiling mud pools that would be pretty unpleasant to fall into, and venting hot sulphuric gasses, but so long as you know where these are you can avoid them and stay safe.

      Like James P, when I’m not in the field I’m on a computer running computer models and analysing data, which isn’t very dangerous at all.

      It’d like to say that in the face of danger I wouldn’t be scared. However, if you watch some youtube videos of explosive volcanic eruptions, you realise that they are so powerful that if one happened and you were caught in it, there’s basically nothing you can do. I think I’d be very scared if a volcano started erupting and I was on it.

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