PANDORA'S BOXES
Containment cabinets in a BSL-3 laboratory, prior to the construction of modern BSL-4 labs.
At first glance, the lab looks like any other. The refrigerators, centrifuges, and computers are all standard equipment, as are the ubiquitous work hoods. Even the fluorescent lighting and lack of windows are standard issue. It's the coiled air hoses, dangling from the ceiling – and maybe the air-locked, submarine style door that is the lab's only exit – that first betrays what goes on inside.
Suspended in the culture media behind that door are biologics whose very names are filled with menace: Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa fever, to name a few. Every day, scientists who work with such pathogens enter an environment unknown to others. Encased in bulky suits, they handle deadly specimens – protected by only a few pairs of gloves – in near isolation. They accept the ponderous equipment and safety ...
