The Divergence of Laboratory Organization

In some laboratories, almost complete isolation is the rule. Every worker keeps his room locked and many have worked for years without knowing what problems the others are engaged on. The danger inherent in the first extreme is that it checks originality and gives no sense of responsibility to the assistants. Many scientific reputations have been made almost entirely by skillful collaboration. Such men are still all too rare in the scientific world. Except in a few laboratories of this type, nothing corresponds to a comprehensive plan or scheme of work conceived over a period of years.