ABOVE: S. Levin using a dissecting microscope with a simple USB camera to set up a regeneration memory assay for planaria in a petri dish
MICHAEL LEVIN
COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic we face in the coming years. This is an opportunity to learn how to decentralize scientific research and make it more robust. Research is a crucial area in which the world must become quarantine-proof. While some kinds of experiments clearly must be done entirely inside a state-of-the-art laboratory, there is a considerable sector of the scientific community’s research portfolio that could continue even when social distancing prohibits normal operation of laboratories. To do this, there are steps that laboratory heads, educators, reviewers, journal editors, and university administrators should take now to keep the essential stream of basic science flowing during this and subsequent quarantines. I propose that we must now begin to take the necessary regulatory, cultural, ...
