Smart bio-laboratories of the future

The current emergence of wireless and pervasive computing technologies presents an invaluable opportunity for digital convergence in the traditionally pen-and-paper based life sciences laboratories. We envision a bio-laboratory of the future where smart computing technologies are embedded into the traditional laboratory environment to simplify laboratory work and improve the quality and productivity of scientists in their experimentation activities. By such unprecedented transportation of computing beyond the desk-top PCs of "dry" labs right onto the lab benches of "wet" labs where biological data are generated, we envisage that the current success of computing in biology can thus be furthered beyond traditional bioinformatics.