You know, what I just wrote says nothing about how Paos and the workflow system fit into the whole scheme. And, in fact, some of my points may be point-less in light of the wfs. For example, Justin describes the wfs as being reponsible for launching loci; I said each locus launches it's own child. We'll just have to look more closely at Paos and wfs as they develop and see how these issues should be resolved. In any case, Benchtop is a no-brainer ;-) Jeff -- J.W. Bizzaro Phone: 617-552-3905 Boston College mailto:bizzaro at bc.edu Department of Chemistry http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Chem/Bizzaro/ --