Most people associate science with technical equipment: goggles, lasers, microscopes, or knee-length lab coats. For me, science really can’t be done without a far more basic piece of equipment: the dry-erase marker.
Practically every time I visit a laboratory or scientist’s office, I see a white board filled with diagrams and sketches. In the sleekest new biomedical research buildings, scientists’ scribbling is so in-your-face that whole walls are covered with ideas born and then erased. Eric Lander, the founding director of the Broad Institute, once told me that the floor-to-ceiling write-on walls at the Broad were inspired by an experience earlier in his career when he began explaining an idea at a meeting. In his enthusiasm to get his point across, he began sketching directly on the wall.
Comments
Thanks Carolyn for such a great piece-- I'm biased though as Farish Jenkins was my father ;) - Tess Jenkins Leeds