Physical Danger
Like the glory, this part may depend on what specifically you find yourself working on. So imagine you spend ten years of your life in a lab designing an incredibly lightweight, strong, flexible, and highly conductive material that scientists are already hailing as the spark for a new Golden Age of Construction. Great, right?
But then the federal regulators discover that it's not only highly carcinogenic, but also gradually turns your skin purple. Uh oh—you just spent ten years working day after day with these chemical compounds and polymers. Is purple is a good color on you? We hope so.
Really though, in most cases you won't be facing much physical danger. Sure, you'll work with some tools that may be dangerous, and you do face the risk that the products you create could have adverse side effects. But that's what you learned about during all those late night study sessions. So, just make sure to pay extra close attention in your hazardous materials classes, and you should be fine.