Philosophy

We have already established what lab2 is and why it exists. If lab2 is an imaginary lab and this work is its imaginary handbook, we must now establish what is meant by lab, what its purpose is, and how the handbook is organized.

The laboratory

Laboratories ('labs' for short, here understood as research groups, rather than physical spaces) are the operational unit of science today. This has not always been so, and we can debate the merits and shortcomings of this reality, perhaps even in this project at some future time. However, the institutions in charge of the organization and economic support of science have been put into place in such a way that laboratories, in one form or another, appear to be the present and foreseeable future of scientific research. The laboratory has produced –and continues to produce– valuable science and scientists. More importantly, its definition has changed over time and across fields, and continues to do so, spanning the breadth from two-person teams in a single room to hundreds of people in different countries. A laboratory, defined as loosely as possible, is a group of researchers united by a common set of research problems and/or methods. The laboratory is not contingent upon any specific members (labs in the US academic tradition frequently take their name from their principal investigator, but other traditions take names from more abstract sources). In fact, member turnover results in people of different levels of expertise simultaneously being part of the lab, making training an integral part of any laboratory’s function.

The flexibility and malleability of the term, its historical success and current use, and the fact that it acknowledges the inherently collaborative nature of research, are the reason why I choose the lab (or research group, according to your field) as a starting point.

Mission

lab2 is a hypothetical academic research lab. Some of its objectives and practices may not align with labs in institutions with different missions, such as industry or government. However, many of them probably will, and besides, members of industry, government, and other institutions of science will probably be trained in academic labs. Perhaps others will port lab2's resources into some of these other settings.

As a lab, lab2 aims to advance science and knowledge. However, this can mean different things to different labs. As an academic lab, lab2's first mission is to train others in advancing science and knowledge. The best way of doing this is, of course, by producing science and knowledge of high quality through research—hands-on learning by doing. However, the role of lab2 in the advancement of science is the training of new scientists first and foremost. Naturally, trainees themselves are not expected to exercise science in academia, or any other institution, after their passage through lab2: interactions beyond academia are crucial for science to remain an effective part of society.

Knowing what lab2 is and what it means to do, we now face the task of building and organizing it.

Lessons from biology

When asked, I tell people I am a biologist by training. What this means is that I am trained to think about things under the lens of evolution, understanding function through structure, examining interactions across different scales. I do not claim this approach to understanding is better than any other, but I do believe it has advantages. It provides a useful framework for understanding complex phenomena, and a benchmark to explain them through tangible analogies. A lab is, in many ways, very much a living thing. For this reason, the ideas comprising lab2 are organized in a scheme that takes cues from biology. I hope this strategy results in piquing readers’ interest more than shunning researchers in other fields.

It is important to state clearly that although I draw on biology for inspiration and organization, I do not imply that these arguments are correct because they rest on biology. They should be judged based on their merit as guidelines for a research lab, run by people (not bacteria or fruit flies) in a complex society and a complex world.

Principles

Labs, like other living things, operate on many different levels of interactions, from the micro to the macro. These levels are used to organize the operating principles of lab2, and include:

  • Composition: elements and roles constituting the lab and how they are organized
  • Metabolism: inner workings of the lab that advance research
  • Growth: practices ensuring research results in teaching, training, and mentorship
  • Ecology: interactions with actors tangential to research

Additionally, as in other biological systems, certain transversal themes permeate these levels of organization. These include

  • Replication: lab2 trains scientists (for a variety of scientific roles), as explained above
  • Transfer of genetic information: an integral part of science is transparent communication of its own practice
  • Structure follows function: lab2’s organization is deliberate and reflects its core values
  • Diversity: by expanding the range of peoples involved, we build a more resilient, adaptable scientific community
  • Evolution: as any lab or living system, lab2 is continuously evolving

Paraphrasing Theodosius Dobzhansky, no living system makes sense if not in the light of evolution. The evolution of lab2 is tracked on a GitHub repository, as the content is written in Markdown. Whether you do or don't run a lab, you are encouraged to fork it, re-hash it, copy pieces or be inspired by any part of it.