When OSHA comes knocking on your lab’s door, you’d better be prepared to explain just how careful you are with your acids, Bunsen burners, and the like. With that in mind, check out The Safety Song from The Sounds of Science, a small group of Berkeley grad students and alums that express their love of science and music with… puppets.
This year, Disco thought we’d get into the spirit of Halloween and dress up in a space suit. So we went to a costume store and bought a silver unitard for the occasion. But when we took the suit out of the bag, it smelled like a new shower curtain. Earlier this year, a national environmental organization found that shower curtains contained high concentrations of phthalates and released volatile organic compounds it to the air (which are all chemicals that the Environmental Protection Agency has recognized as hazardous).
Which would explain why the smell made us feel nauseous. We checked the tag to see what the unitard was made out of: 100 percent polyester, made in China.
DiscoBlog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Andrew Moseman and Smriti Rao, and edited by Eliza Strickland. Email tips, suggestions, or complaints to estrickland [at] discovermagazine.com.