• Question: do you stink of dung when you come home?

    Asked by SsaraHh to Ciarán on 10 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Ciarán O'Brien

      Ciarán O'Brien answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      No, for three reasons:

      1: I wear a lab coat and protective gloves whenever I work with poop, so if I get any on me it’s not on clothing I have to wear home.

      2: when working with poop, I work in a fume hood. It’s a special cabinet that has an extractor fan inside, which sucks air in and keeps any gases from wandering out of the cabinet. It’s mostly to keep us from breathing in dangerous fumes like acid of chloroform, but it works just as well on poop smell.

      3: I’m a good enough scientist to not smear poop all over me when I work 🙂

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