Perspectives: The lab of the future

Abstract

The lab of the future. This phrase calls to mind a place where scientists, engineers, or, frankly, researchers of any discipline, can step around the mundane aspects associated with having a lab—that is, planning, performing maintenance, scheduling, and preparing—and get straight to the process of experimentation. Imagine a place with floating displays, information at the tip of a finger, and few barriers to analysis, synthesis, or creativity. We’ve seen something like this already in the basement work space of Tony Stark, the businessman alter ego of Stan Lee’s comic book and movie superhero Iron Man. The lab of the future is all about bringing this vision closer through modern information technology. But where can we find this ideal basement? In the real world, we still have to build it. So let’s start with a list of what we’ll need, beginning with the basics: data, data management systems, and knowledgeable research