Forget stuffy lecture halls and humming fluorescent lights. Build robots instead! Or run a nuclear reactor. To rank the coolest labs in the country, we factored in groundbreaking research, undergrad access and sheer awesomeness.
Click here to launch a gallery of the coolest labs in America
Check out the 2011 additions to our list in the articles below, or browse the full set of 25 labs in our image gallery above.
- Build Your Own Spaceship: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Brew the World's Best Beer: University of California at Davis Pilot Brewery
- Probe the Ocean Deep: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Work On the Edge of Earth's Plates: California Institute of Technology Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
- Design a Microdrone: U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground
- Run a Nuclear Reactor: Reed College
- Print New Body Parts: Cornell University Creative Machines Lab
- Put Science on the Big Screen: University of Southern California Visualizing Science Initiative
- Eavesdrop on Nearby Galaxies: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
- Make a Better Soldier: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Human Performance Wing

Missouri University of Science and Technology: Experimental Mine

George Washington University: National Crash Analysis Center

University of Alabama at Huntsville: Propulsion Research Center

University of California at Berkeley: Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory

Pasadena, California: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Northern Kentucky University: Barton Lab

University of California at Davis: Pilot Brewery

Texas Tech University: Wind Science and Engineering Research Center

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Cornell University: Game Design Initiative

California Institute of Technology Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences

New College Florida: Peruvian Amazon Field Course

U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Toy Lab

Reed College: Nuclear Reactor

University of Florida: Lightning Research Laboratory

Cornell University Creative Machines Lab

Colorado State University: Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory

Montana State University: Subzero Science and Engineering Laboratory

University of Southern California: Visualizing Science Initiative

U.S. Geological Survey: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Stanford University: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

University of California at Berkeley: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
