• Question: What is the most extreme experiment you've done?

    Asked by wjwheatley to Indi, Jarv, John, Ken, Vicky on 13 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Vicky Young

      Vicky Young answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      HI

      Well I’ve not done anything extreme I don’t think… the types of experiments I do are well established like looking at what genes are expressed.

      I did run a live experiment at Green Man music festival last year (with last years winner Gemma). We built a giant uterus and raced model sperm through it to demonstrate how hard it is to get pregnant normally and then we showed what happens to your reproductive organs when you catch things like chlamydia and how this can make is almost impossible to get pregnant as well as being really painful and horrible.

      It was used to communicate some of the research the Center for Reproductive Health (where I work) is doing on this topic as well as raise awareness for sexual health.

      That was pretty extreme and lots of fun!

      http://www.eggandspermrace.com

    • Photo: Jarvist Moore Frost

      Jarvist Moore Frost answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      The most extreme experiments I have been involved in are ones that use the ILL neutron source in Grenoble, to see how fast polymers wiggle.

      This is a specially designed nuclear reactor that puts out VAST quantities of neutrons. The beam concentration is something like 10^15 neutrons / s per centimetre squared. Of course, there’s all kinds of safety interlocks and shielding to prevent people getting exposed to the beam, but wow – that would cause some serious damage if you stood it in, even for an instant!

    • Photo: Indi Ghangrekar

      Indi Ghangrekar answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      Perhaps not too extreme but because I study the body clock, I have to be in at all sorts of silly hours of the day and night. Whilst I was doing my PhD, I was working round the clock for over 24hrs!!

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