ANDRZEJ KRAUZE
The public’s view of the scientific endeavor often conjures up stereotypical imagery: a begoggled and lab-coated researcher sitting in a stark room operating ergonomically designed technology. But as anyone who has actually worked in a lab knows, that picture could not be further from the truth. Working experimentalists are generally more than familiar with foul smells, contamination mishaps, cluttered and clunky equipment, and space shortages. Since the dawn of science, the issue of safety in the confinement of the experimental arena has been a significant problem—even if it was not recognized as such.
The price of some of the most transformative scientific discoveries was the health of their discoverers. Beyond the famous case of Marie Curie-Sk?odowska, Robert Bunsen, the inventor of the ubiquitous Bunsen burner, ...
