Noise-free labs, IBM research. View through a portal to a chamber for noisy equipment (such as pumps and transformers) to isolate them from the main lab, in one of the 'noise-free' laboratories constructed at the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center at IBM Research-Zurich, Switzerland. The 'noise-free' laboratories, constructed in 2011, are shielded against external and internal vibrations, acoustic noise, electromagnetic fields and temperature fluctuations. They will provide an ideal research environment for nanometre-scale research over the next 20 to 30 years. Photographed in May 2011.