You wouldn't think that spending most of the day reorganizing the lab would be lots of fun, but it was. Maybe just because its more enjoyable to try and picture my ideal lab than it is to puzzle through other people's cryptic theories. That's also fun, but I burn out faster :p. Anyhow, we put in some nice tables today with shelves and racks to get the Nanoscope controller & computers up out of the way. I'm looking forward to cluttering up all the new empty space ;).

I think it would be cool to have a lab with most everything suspended from the ceiling. You could route all the supporting cables over to a line of cleats or belaying pins running down one wall. Then you could set up your experiment with plenty of space in the center of the room, lowering whatever setup equipment you needed down to arms reach & hoisting it back up out of the way when you were done. You could also stash servers and stuff up out of the way, but you'd need a side table somewhere for monitors and printers. Hmm, maybe I'll make some drawings up to get a better feel for the idea.