Word: labs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...will become the site of an important experiment. Converted at a cost of $250,000, the facility has been certified by the National Institutes of Health as the nation's first P-4 laboratory, where the riskiest genetic research now permitted by the NIH can be conducted. The lab's initial test will attempt to answer two vital questions: Can recombinant DNA research create dangerous organisms? If so, can they be safely handled in a laboratory...
...experiments will also provide a good test of Building 550, which was designed to prevent material from recombinant DNA work from escaping into the environment. NIH officials are confident that the new lab is even more secure than the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, which was built by NASA at a time when it was still thought that astronauts might bring back dangerous bugs from the moon...
...enter the P-4 lab, scientists must first change into special protective clothing, then pass through an air lock designed to keep contaminants out; to leave, even if only for lunch, lab workers must pass through another air lock, strip off their protective clothing and then pass through a shower. At no time will the scientists involved in P-4 experiments come into direct contact with the materials under study. Those tests will be conducted inside "glove boxes," glass-fronted stainless steel cabinets fitted with shoulder-length rubber gloves that enable workers to manipulate the culture dishes, test tubes...
...very air in the boxes will flow through an incinerator before it is vented outside. Even if an altered organism escapes, it should pose no threat. All P-4 experiments must be conducted with a weakened strain of E. coli that cannot survive outside the special conditions of the lab...
...That means if you're a pre--med major you can take your tough science or lab courses during the summer when your load's a little easier, get better grades and a better education. In the Ivy League over the summer you have to work to pay your way the rest of the year--or pay for summer school...