An Unhappy Hour for MCB

For an edifice as large as the behemoth known as Northwest Science Building, the activity level Friday afternoon was surprisingly close to nil. Didn’t these people have some research to do?

Thankfully, we found these buttoned-down lab rats did in fact have their priorities straight—they were focusing on alcohol and mountains of Doritos. The FAS Center for Systems Biology, a collaborative research unit whose members occupy Northwest, holds happy hours every Friday at 5 pm, and we were lucky enough to stumble upon a coagulated mass of biology researchers “socializing” as they knocked back Coronas and forgot that their shoelaces were still tied (more on the Northwest scene after the jump).

It was raging, to say the least. We struck up a conversation with the director of research Bodo Stern, who had consumed at least one bottled blend of hops and barley by the time we started discussing the possible move-in to Northwest of MCB professors and their labs currently located in Fairchild Biochemistry Building down the street.

Stern was a fan of the idea, calling it "perfect." Though he understands that the move may be disruptive for the MCB people, Stern thinks "it's great to have stem cell researchers here."

He paused sagely. "I think it's going to be fun." After all, alcohol never impaired anyone, including professors...right? Right.