Sometime before 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 13, 2011, a senior undergraduate student at Yale University was killed in a horrific laboratory accident. The student, a 22-year old girl named Michele Dufault, was a chemistry and physics major who was known for her academic excellence and kindness. Dufault’s hair was pulled into a lathe that she was working on in the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory, but nobody was around in the lab to save her from the danger (www.abcnews.go.com).

Dufault herself hailed from the Cape Cod seaport of Scituate, Massachusetts. She was “described as a ‘brilliant student,’ was an astronomy and physics major, and was a member of the Yale Precision Marching Band” (www.dailymail.co.uk). As a student in Saybrook College, which was a residential college of Yale University, she was very popular for her kindness and friendliness.

Given Dufault’s unparalleled promise, sophomore student David Tsui said, “I’ll feel bad that so much hope has been lost.”

Dufault was the apotheosis of a young scientist. She had traveled to Houston as part of a plasma physics experiment with NASA, and she often worked with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution regarding underwater robots. During the horrible accident, she had been working on an experiment evaluating the possibility of using helium to detect dark matter (www.nytimes.com).

Her brutal killing raises many questions regarding scientific safety and students. In scientific laboratories, often populated with undergraduate scientists and occasionally high school researchers, safety should be enforced. Senior student and young medical enthusiast Mahen Seneviratne said that the issue raises questions about safety in scientific labs. He said, “We need to raise awareness in the community. [Scientific accidents are] a big problem.”

Mr. Shefler was dismayed by the accident, saying that it never should have happened in the first place. He said, “Safety precautions should already be in place.”

Don Connelly, a wise senior, offered a possible solution for these scientific issues. He said, “The scientific community should start using the buddy system. It works really well and it could prevent future misdeeds.”

Because Dufault was alone early in the morning during the accident, such accompaniment could prevent any further casualties.