"yes it seem to be one of the supposed reasons why the dharma initive had been set up. I believe that is the reason why there is nolonger any dharma related activity on the island, execpt for the others. these were probably scientists who decided to stay on the island when everyone else left or could not escape as Henry Gale/ Ben states "i've lived on this island my whole life. Also in the dharma initive video it seems there was an accident in the swan this could have occured when they were trying to alter one of the Valenetti Equation numerical values. In season two when jack first enters the he notices two mop buckets and a sealed corridor with fire extingusher foam. it is presumed that this corridor lead to a giant electro magnet where they would have been experiment but the fact you can see fire extinguher foam suggest an accident.Also it would appear this was not the only place where they possibly failed. the map on the blast door show various wrinting indicating that the dharma initive system was/had failed with the network system failing and subsequent abandoning of the facilities the cleasest map is avaailable here http://www.lost4815162342.com/blastmap.htm good luck "