A facelift for science

Toward the southern end of campus, it appears that an 80,000 foot crater has struck IU's property. The fenced-off area is filled with partially broken rocks, long furrows of reddish dirt and a swarm of heavy-duty construction trucks. This is the construction site and birthplace of Simon Hall, the newest addition to IU's collection of research buildings, and an area that many University scientists are watching with exhilaration. Though it resembles a deep scar on the earth right now, this building will form the beginnings of a badly needed scientific facelift at IU.\nFor many, the need for such a 'lift' isn't even a question anymore -- it's a matter of necessity. \nFor one, some University researchers literally have no space in their labs. Last year, biology chair Elizabeth Raff's Jordan Hall lab was so pressed for writing space after the chalkboards were filled that her group was forced to get creative with the materials they had and ended up writing the steps of experiments on any glass surface in the room.\n"We started writing on anything -- windows and doors and on the glass hoods," Raff said. "Various experiments would be written on flat surfaces around the room that couldn't be moved until the experiment was done."\nHer lab's planned move to Simon Hall, scheduled for completion in 2007, will come as a great relief.\n"We all have our elbows clenched right now," she said.\nBeyond the badly needed breathing room, the other 'lift' Simon Hall will provide is that of the current buzzwords in the scientific community: interdisciplinary research. And while "interdisciplinary" is a mouthful to say, its purposes are sound. The idea behind the term is to bring together scientists from different disciplines to share information and ideas. The building is specifically designed to pull scientists from many of the major scientific disciplines and house them together under one roof in pursuit of pure research . . . and maybe get them to also bump into each other and chat over the coffee pot, too. In Simon Hall, a chemist, biologist and physicist may all share lab space, materials and a common area, rather than being housed in traditionally separate buildings.\n"The days of a scientist sitting alone in his own lab are fading away," said biochemistry Professor Carl Bauer. "We're moving more towards having teams of scientists work on complex problems." \nSo push aside an image of Louis Pasteur working alone in a tiny lab to create the rabies vaccine -- this building caters more to the collaborative efforts of scientists like the famous duo of James Watson, an IU alumnus, and Francis Crick, the men credited with the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. To enhance the chances of forming more of these collaborations that yield such paradigm-shifting results, the placement of conference rooms, chalkboards and even the coffee pots have been given high consideration, as these are the areas that will maximize the interactions between the multidisciplinary scientists.\nAs a member of the architectural committee advising the design of the building, Bauer is partially responsible for many of these small details. He's a huge supporter of using teamwork for tackling complex problems, and his collaborative research with geologist Lisa Pratt and chemist Don Burke has resulted in a $1 million award from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation for Interdisciplinary Research -- the first ever IU has received. With his own experiences with interdisciplinary work yielding positive results, Bauer truly believes putting scientists together increases their creativity.\n"Having different buildings tends to insulate scientists, and it's hard work to break down those walls," Bauer said. "We're trying to build a building that allows new science to come out."\nBuilding blueprints plan for a wide range of disciplines: four chemistry labs, three biochemistry labs, a biophysics lab, a genomics lab (for the study of genes) and a proteomics lab (for the study of proteins) share the five floors. Additionally, the Linda and Jack Gill Center for Biomolecular Measurement and the Johnson Center for Science and Entrepreneurship will be located in the building. \nFor Richard McKaig, dean of student and chancellor of student affairs, the groundbreaking this summer and the slow erection of the building means that it's all finally coming together.\n"It's important for the University to make the next step in research, and these new labs are clearly not of the 1990s," he said. "The interdisciplinary way was not as common in the past, but the synergy between scientists and researchers will only happen if they are talking together and seeing what each other are doing."\nTruly, it's the close association between people sharing common interests and passions that is driving this new face of science at IU, and being able to stretch out in new workspace and stop by a new neighbor's lab just to find out their interests will surely spark innovation, as any association does, according to Alan Bender, associate professor of molecular biology.\n"Even if you go to hear a lecture and understand almost nothing, it's the random conversations you have in the cafeteria afterwards that can turn out to be the most important," he said.\nIn the common areas of Simon Hall, one of these random conversations may just turn into inspiration for the cure of the common cold, but only time will tell.\n-- Contact science and health editor Kelly Phillips at science@idsnews.com.