Today at UCLA, in an undergraduate organic chemistry lab, a male student repeatedly punched a female student and then slashed her throat, in front of his classmates.  This incident comes not long after the horrific murder of Annie Le in another science lab at Yale.   Although UCLA and YALE claim that they are not at fault, we believe that the environment they are fostering in their labs is certainly a contributing factor. Having been teaching assistants for undergraduate chemistry labs ourselves, and having suffered through a PhD program in chemistry, we can tell you first-hand that the environment in academic science can best be described as something from “Lord of the Flies.”  In fact, we have witnessed male violence against female graduate students ourselves, and then watched as those incidents were minimized  by male professors and swept under the rug.  There is a complete and utter lack of a human resources presence in academic science labs, a presence which is sorely needed to maintain a professional and female-friendly environment.  These are not occurrences that are borne out of randomness.  They are the most extreme examples of the aggressive and misogynistic behavior that is not only allowed in academic science labs, but also encouraged. (Photo: LA Times)