Brain research holds promise for new lab design strategies If you are familiar with Puccini’s 19th Century opera “La Boheme,” you will recall the circumstances of the “artiste,” whose live/work setting is a garret, wanting of both basic and material comforts. Green chemistry gains ground; lab design changes sure to follow Now that the daunting data on environmental perils are regarded more as a call to action than an inconvenience, a plethora of green chemistry initiatives—the creation of materials, products, and processes that are environmentally benign as well as profitable—is gathering momentum across academia and the business and industrial worlds. Revamp restores usefulness to 1960s chemistry facility Up-to-date chemistry research and teaching can be a challenge if facilities are sub-par. Like many academic institutions, Wayne State Univ. of Detroit saw its facilities wane in usefulness as decades progressed and standards evolved.