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 basically safe and stable.
But for the branch of this particular science known as volcanology, things are
definitely less stable and certainly a little hotter. Having been to Mt. St.
Helens, Washington, 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 of the eruption 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
(pictured at top of page) 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
such advanced technology 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
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 4 are where the really
bad stuff happens. One of the most notable is the integrated research facility
located at Fort Detrick, Maryland. The laboratory is housed in a nondescript
three-story structure that looks like an office building—an airtight,
pressurized environment restricted to only thirty researchers. The germs they
work with include epidemic diseases like Ebola and now most likely COVID. 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 600 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 in northern California climb to the top
of redwood 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 50 feet. Researchers
spend up to ten days underwater at a time, studying the nearby coral reefs.
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. The hurricane
season of 2020 has been the most active one in the 170 years of keeping
records.
9) Outer Space
And finally…what Star
Trek referred to as 'Space—The Final Frontier.' 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 in order
to live and function. True—humans can't breathe at ocean depths without
bringing oxygen with them, but the availability of more oxygen is much closer
than it is in outer space. 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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