Most reachers spend the majority of their day in a lab or office. To be "at work" is to be running experiments, reading papers and on occasion, even writing them. Scientists work hard.
This empirical procession is occasionally punctuated with a break. During the week: A coffee in the canteen. Friday evening: A beer in the pub. What I'm starting to appreciate is that these places are not distinct from work, but an extension of the lab.
Writing for MRC Insight, Katherine Nightingale discusses "The Great Coffee Breakthrough":
"The LMB [Laboratory of Molecular Biology] has three allotted refreshment slots — coffee in the morning, lunch, and tea in the afternoon — where researchers and support staff are encouraged to get together."
Professor Marcus Munafò continues:
“It’s pot luck who you end up talking to. Talking to people in different areas can sometimes generate a new direction for your research that you wouldn’t have thought of alone. It’s important to recognise the creative aspect of talking with colleagues – and science has a strong creative dimension to it.”
The MRC certainly believe "a few hours a week in the canteen can save many more hours in the lab."
The ICR doesn't have an equivalent schedule but our lab does have "crossword time". At around 15:00 everyday the group assembles in the canteen ready to tackle a cryptic crossword. We do it as a break. For fun. For an opportunity to re-caffinate. But over time it's become less of a traditional 'break' and more of a forum. It's the one time every day where the lab get together and work on a common problem. Admittedly the problem usually involves anachronistic naval terminology, roman numerals and anagrams — but it's teamwork nonetheless. It's an excuse for everyone to talk, share thoughts and flaunt their lexicons. We may not be discussing science the whole time, but we leave the process a tighter social group than before we started. And in the collaborative world of modern research, it's valuable for a lab to understand the dialectical methods of its members.
If the canteen is important for collaboration, the pub appears more suited to creativity. Mikael Cho writing for LifeHacker suggests we should "Drink Beer for Big Ideas, Coffee to Get Them Done". Maybe he's a sanguine dipsomaniac, but apparently:
"Researchers found that about five seconds before you have a "eureka moment" there is a large increase in alpha waves that activates the anterior superior temporal gyrus. These alpha waves are associated with relaxation—which explains why you often get ideas while you’re on a walk, in the shower, or on the toilet. Alcohol is a substance that relaxes you, so it produces a similar effect on alpha waves and helping us reach creative insights. Coffee doesn’t necessarily help you access more creative parts of your brain like a couple pints of beer."
So next time you're in the pub just remember: You're creatively preparing your brain for its next coffee break.