"Let's talk numbers," says Princeton University's Ethan Perlstein in a post at his blog. "How much does it actually cost to run a small academic lab?"

To answer that, for himself and others, Perlstein has posted a budget for his $200,000 per year, two-employee lab. On average, his lab spends around $17,138 per month, though he notes that some months are considerably more expensive than others. For example, those in which major equipment purchases are made.