I've ran out to street parking and rummaged through my car trunk with just shorts in -30/-35 weather, but there was sun and no wind. Wind can make a huge difference, as can standing around vs. walking. I can stand around at a slightly sheltered bus stop for half an hour in that weather, or walk for 30-60 minutes easily, but I simply don't have adequate clothing for hours in such weather.
I've known several people that worked a stint on projects at the South Pole. Even though the temperatures were "only" -20 something in the summer, they were explicitly told not to bring a coat on their first trip as they would be issued an appropriate one. The project really did not want to risk someone underestimating how difficult it would be standing outside in windy conditions doing non-physically intense activity.
I don't think I can compete with the biological sciences in this regard. And probably most of my weirder stuff was biology invading my lab anyway.
Maybe the oddest was having to clean a nest of baby spiders out of a high voltage system. Or cleaning dead birds out of a capacitor bank (the capacitors leak a sticky oil that can act like glue traps). Or running parts from a room sized laser through my home dishwasher, as dish washer soap is great at getting off hard water marks. Or cleaning up the remains of light fixtures that caught fire above a capacitor bank. I guess life story: high voltage systems collect a lot of detritus.
Most other stories involve breaking tools or drinking (but not both... I don't mix things that shouldn't be), which can happen at any job. Surely everyone has screwdrivers that are an inch shorter than when new.
I've known several people that worked a stint on projects at the South Pole. Even though the temperatures were "only" -20 something in the summer, they were explicitly told not to bring a coat on their first trip as they would be issued an appropriate one. The project really did not want to risk someone underestimating how difficult it would be standing outside in windy conditions doing non-physically intense activity.
Maybe the oddest was having to clean a nest of baby spiders out of a high voltage system. Or cleaning dead birds out of a capacitor bank (the capacitors leak a sticky oil that can act like glue traps). Or running parts from a room sized laser through my home dishwasher, as dish washer soap is great at getting off hard water marks. Or cleaning up the remains of light fixtures that caught fire above a capacitor bank. I guess life story: high voltage systems collect a lot of detritus.
Most other stories involve breaking tools or drinking (but not both... I don't mix things that shouldn't be), which can happen at any job. Surely everyone has screwdrivers that are an inch shorter than when new.