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Fully funded -- no need for scientists to chase grants No responsibilities besides research -- no teaching load, no administration All scientists have to be hands-on -- at the bench A focus on a fairly narrow set of difficult, high-payoff research challenges No tenure -- senior scientists have a five year term and then may or may not be re-signed (My favorite) Research groups can have no more than 6 members. This means that they cannot possibly have all the skills they need inside their team and so will have to get out of their own lab and get to know the other people in the place so they can get the help they need. All of this is nestled in a facility with amenities intended to increase mingling, interaction and ultimately collaboration.

"In 2004, statistician Joseph Chang, computer scientist Douglas Rohde, and writer Steve Olson used a computer model of human genetics to show that anyone who was alive 2,000-3,000 years ago is either the ancestor of everyone who's now alive, or no one at all. Think about that: If a person alive in 1,000 BCE has any descendants alive today, they have all of us-even people from different continents and isolated populations. "

"Part of the scientific enterprise is to disseminate the results of research to other scientists as well as to people outside of academia."