One of my favorite writers is Dan Ariely of "Predictably Irrational" (both book and blog) fame. In his most recent blog at http://www.predictablyirrational.com/ ("Are We More Rational Than Our Fellow Animals?" Dan uncovers some of the advantages we humans enjoy through possession of a neocortex. According to Dan, this is "the most recently evolved part of the brain and the center of higher mental functions" and "it’s thanks to our neocortex that we are able to plan for the future." The gist of his article is that our ability to think at a higher level and plan does not always add up to brilliantly rational actions benefitting our own best interest.
Witness the 4L-DOT cryogenic liquid cylinder shown above with both the safety relief and burst disk plugged.
What is the rational solution for a relief that continues to vent and make irritating noise? Someone apparently figured removing the relief and replacing it with a plug would do the job.
And then what do you do when the pressure builds so high that it blows the burst disk and pressure is lost? One solution is apparently to remove the blown burst disk safety and replace it with a plug.
OK- so maybe the planning capacity of the neocortex wasn't fully developed in this case....... as witnessed by the ultimate result of an overpressurized (exploded) liquid cylinder. The most fortunate part of all of this is the fact it happened at 3:00 a.m. which is about the only time where someone would not be in the lab to get hurt.
A more in depth article on this incident can be found at http://ucih.ucdavis.edu/docs/chemistry_301a.pdf. It is great reading for anyone open to learning from the mistakes of others.
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