Birthday with a Bang! KABOOM

Never take your safety gear for granted!

 I definitely do not. I actually love safety equipment, pile it on me.  The lab coat and goggles just feels so right. I daresay cool even.

Stylin'...geek style

I was making a reagent today, that was not particularly volatile.  I've probably made this reagent dozens of times over the last five years, so I really didn't think much about it.  I set up my area and started weighing out a neat material across the room.  This only took a couple minutes, but when I came back I realized the heat knob was switched on.  Actually it was on full heat.  I reached in the hood to take the 4 liter glass bottle off the heat, and it exploded.

Yep, it blew up in my hand!

And this ladies and gentlemen is the aftermath.

(Note the stir bar still in the middle)

 Luckily only a small amount of residual solution was in the bottom of the bottle when it exploded.  It made the loudest boom I've ever heard, and people from other areas of the lab ran in to check on us.  Glass shot out of the hood, across the room, and everywhere!

 I was standing right in front of the hood holding the glass that exploded.

I'm lucky enough to be typing this article still and without any injury.  And I mean I really feel very lucky.  I could have easily gotten shards of glass all over my body and face. Any one piece of glass could have maimed or disfigured me, or worse.

We've had instances in the lab when our liter sep. funnels would become too reactive and shoot their caps off during a shake.  Other than that we've never had much problem and 0 injuries.

I guess once the oven caught on fire too, but that was dealt with pretty quickly.

After something like that happens, it shakes you up a little. After 5 years in the lab, I often feel like a well oiled robot going through the motions of my day at work.  The routine work was less than routine after the explosion though.

I didn't attempt to make the reagent again.  In fact I walked a little slower, checked my surroundings a little harder, and my heart was still beating pretty fast when I walked out the door.

I kept this scorched stir bar as a reminder that one day in the lab I felt like a mad scientist.

My new S.P.E. partner, Kim, was the only one in the room at the time.  She's still saying I just wanted to start my birthday with a bang!