Where the Awesome, and Awkward, Spark Progress

The Scientist examines team-building efforts that take place on the snowy slopes of Stowe, Vt., and the Las Vegas strip. Each year, members of George Daley's lab at Children's Hospital Boston pack up their winter weather gear and "a collection of red and white wines" to take on their ski trip "labcation," during which they bond over karaoke, making sushi, and tobogganing, The Scientist says. Similarly, members of Vijay Pande's lab and Russ Altman's group at Stanford University, as well researchers in Brian Schoichet's lab at the University of California, San Francisco, took a trip this year to the Las Vegas strip for "cocktails, all-you-can-eat Brazilian barbeque, live shows and ... a little gambling" in order to foster their scientific collaboration. Paul Novick, a graduate student in the Pande Lab, tells The Scientist that the trip helped the group build a stronger bond. "When you see Russ Altman sing 'Poker Face,' you feel a lot more comfortable approaching him with new scientific ideas," he says.