Linking Labs: Interconnecting Experimental Environments

TL;DR

This paper presents LabLinking, a framework for interconnecting experimental labs globally, enabling synchronized experiments, diverse collaborations, and enhanced research capabilities through a structured technological infrastructure.

Contribution

It introduces LabLinking levels (LLL) to define interconnection degrees and details the necessary hardware and software for implementing linked laboratories across institutions.

Findings

Linked labs facilitate continuous scientist-experimenter exchange

Enable synchronized experiments across borders

Improve outreach and experimental diversity

Abstract

We introduce the concept of LabLinking: a technology-based interconnection of experimental laboratories across institutions, disciplines, cultures, languages, and time zones - in other words experiments without borders. In particular, we introduce LabLinking levels (LLL), which define the degree of tightness of empirical interconnection between labs. We describe the technological infrastructure in terms of hard- and software required for the respective LLLs and present examples of linked laboratories along with insights about the challenges and benefits. In sum, we argue that linked labs provide a unique platform for a continuous exchange between scientists and experimenters, thereby enabling a time synchronous execution of experiments performed with and by decentralized user and researchers, improving outreach and ease of subject recruitment, allowing to establish new experimental designs and to incorporate a panoply of complementary biosensors, devices, hard- and software solutions.