Lab fun

Science is better with friends. This is a running album of life outside the figures. For papers, grants and arrivals, see the lab news.

Sep 2026 Stanford campus

BASE scavenger hunt

An afternoon of clues across campus with the whole BASE community, from the seminar room to the Rodin Sculpture Garden and back, ending at a canvas and a lot of paint on hands.

A large group of smiling people in a seminar room, two of them holding a white canvas covered in red, pink and yellow handprints with the word BASE in the middle. — The whole crew

Scavenger-hunt sheets still on the tables, and a freshly hand-printed BASE canvas in the middle.

Three lab members posing in front of Rodin's bronze sculpture The Three Shades, copying its hunched, arm-linked pose, with cypress trees behind them. — Becoming the Three Shades

Three of us recreating Rodin's *The Three Shades*, with less bronze and considerably more smiling.

Yash Rana standing beside the bronze statue of Jean d'Aire, clenching both fists to mirror the statue's pose, in front of tall cypress trees. — Yash versus Jean d'Aire

Squaring up to a Burgher of Calais. The statue has had a century to practice the fists; Yash is catching up fast.

Sep 18, 2026

Genetics retreat

A day away with the Stanford Genetics community. Talks in the morning, sand in the shoes by the afternoon.

Naoki Konno speaking at a podium in a wood-panelled hall, with a projected title slide to the right and an audience seated in the foreground. — Naoki on stage

Naoki Konno presenting his cross-species single-cell work to a full room. The curved mirrors on the wall doubled as a second audience.

Six people playing volleyball on a sand court under eucalyptus trees, one player jumping to hit the ball, with a green golf course behind. — Sand court, second session

Beach volleyball between the talks, ball frozen mid-air and the golf course looking on.

Jul 26, 2026

Summer barbecue

Grill duty, paper plates and bottles of green tea in a sunny courtyard on a July Sunday.

Seven people seated around a picnic table full of food in a sunny courtyard, with two more cooking at a grill in the background. — The courtyard table

Mid-lunch, while the grill crew in the back kept the plates coming.

A closer view of the same picnic table, with trays of food, blue paper plates and a melon, and lab members smiling at the camera. — Second helpings

Same table, a few minutes later. The melon survived; little else did.

Lab members standing and sitting around a picnic table covered in plates and bottles after the meal, in a paved courtyard. — Standing room

By the end, more people than bench. The paper towels did heroic work.

2026

Sweets from near and far

The lab runs on sugar. A record of what showed up on the desk and how fast it disappeared.

A colourful gift box lid printed with Chinese solar-term names and illustrations, including a plum branch, a swallow and a teapot, with the title The Twenty-Four Solar Terms of the Chinese in large characters. — The twenty-four solar termsSep 2026

A gift box designed around the twenty-four solar terms, a different one on every panel from Grain Rain to Winter Solstice, delivered in time for Qiufen, the autumn equinox.

Nine small blue boxes labelled Moon Cake, decorated with a rabbit and a full moon, arranged in a circle inside a brown gift box. — Mid-Autumn mooncakesSep 25, 2026

A box of mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival, fanned out around the one everyone reached for first.

An open gift box of ten colourful yōkan bars with Japanese calligraphy labels, sitting on a desk in front of a keyboard. — Yōkan from JapanJan 2026

Ten slim bars of Toraya yōkan in colours named for honey, new greenery and plum blossoms at night. It did not survive the week.

Have a photo that belongs here? Send it to xiaojie@stanford.edu.

The whole crew

Becoming the Three Shades

Yash versus Jean d'Aire

Naoki on stage

Sand court, second session

The courtyard table

Second helpings

Standing room

The twenty-four solar termsSep 2026

Mid-Autumn mooncakesSep 25, 2026

Yōkan from JapanJan 2026