Laboratories are both monasteries & space stations redolent of the great ideas of genera- tions past & of technologies to propel the future Yet standard lab design has changed only little over recent years Here Mark Fishman describes how to build labs as homes for scientists to accommodate not just their fancy tools but also their personalities This richly illustrated book explores the roles of labs through history from the alchemists of the Middle Ages to the chemists of the 19th & 20th centuries & to the geneticists & structural biologists of today & then turns to the special features of the laboratories Fishman helped to design in Cambridge Shanghai & Basel Anyone who works in or plans to build a lab will enjoy this book which will encourage them to think about how this special environment drives or impedes their important work