ABSTRACT
In context, the "dry lab" approach is used regularly by nearly every working scientist -- each time one critically reads the work of another scientist published in a journal, or listens to a report of it at a seminar or scientific meeting. The term "dry lab" is often applied derogatorily to the situation in which one skips the process of actually undergoing the experimental procedure, and guesses at the outcome of a laboratory exercise from the reading alone. In the traditional laboratory exercise in the biological and physical sciences, a great deal of time, effort, and energy goes into the actual experimentation. Because of the structure of the academic schedule, laboratory exercises also tend to be limited to activities that can be completed within discrete units of time.
