Eye Wash Stations... From The Future!
Ever wonder what happens to your tax dollars? Well, one imperceptibly small percentage of each penny you pay to the federal government goes to building brand-spanking-new labspace like the Molecular Foundry up at LBL. I was given a little tour of the Biological Nanostructures division this afternoon, and I'll tell ya: it all looks amazingly slick. Not the scientific equipment, necessarily, which is what you'd expect of any new instrument, but just the basic lab benches have a very modern look. The faucets, nitrogen taps, the eyewash stations, the doors to the coldroom... they all have a design that's very sleek, sexy and not at all reminiscent of your high school chem lab.
This caught me by surprise. Fixtures on a lab bench have looked pretty much the same for a seventy years - partly because (around Cal, at least) much of the labspace hasn't been renovated in that long. So it's jarring to see that someone paid a little extra money for their lab to look.... good. Like upon seeing some ridiculous faucet in the bathroom of your oh-niner friend, you wonder "somebody paid for this?"