• Question: what is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?

    Asked by HermioneBat to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      My colleague tells me that statistically speaking, driving a car is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done, but that’s not very science-y. (That’s not a comment on my driving, just a statistical observation!)

      The most dangerous science thing I’ve done is a part of my liquid nitrogen public talk where I demonstrate something called the Leidenfrost effect. This involves me plunging my hand into a bucket full of -196C liquid nitrogen – it’s actually quite dangerous and I only do it because I’m properly trained. Don’t ever try it yourself! (There’s a video on my profile page under the ‘what I’d do with the money’ section where I very quickly demonstrate this at the end of the video.)

      So far, I’ve never hurt myself doing that trick, but it’s not one for the faint-hearted!

    • Photo: Lidunka Vocadlo

      Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      @HermioneBat well if we are not talking climbing or cycling in London (which is very dangerous if you are not careful) then being in the same room as a high pressure experiment is pretty dangerous – sometimes the anvils squashing the sample fail and explode across the room. There have been a few near-misses with my colleagues, but the experiments have always behaved very well when I have been in the room!

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I’m super danger avoidant, so while car driving is probably actually the most dangerous thing I do (and I don’t do that much anymore, just because I’m rarely in the US, which is the only place I can drive), I think the most science dangerous thing is drinking tea near a computer that hasn’t been recently backed up.

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