Steve Woolgar and Bruno Latour started their careers with the book Laboratory Life (1979). A child of the linguistic turn in the humanities — one of their theses was the laboratories are about inscriptions; a site were lab people constantly write and inscribe –it became one of the most cited books in the science studies literature. What they missed, and what much of science studies has missed, is that laboratories are sites of play and fun; not so much playing with math and bacteria, but playing with lab mates. Which this short (3’44”) video clip from one of the lab teams (the happy nerds in team #62) at the Sanger Institute shows.
PS: they also have their spare-time drag show …