I love the idea of lab notebooks. I was trained in the sciences but that training was in Mathematics so the idea of lab notebooks didn’t play much of a role. In the experimental sciences and most engineering disciplines, they are not merely crucial but required. If questions arise as to the provenance or precedence of some idea, the lab notebook can be a lifesaver.
When I worked for a computer manufacturer, even the field engineers were required to keep lab notebooks and to turn them in if they left. A crucial aspect of such notebooks is forensics but they can be much more.
Sam Bleckley has a nice post on lab notebooks and why they can be helpful even for software developers. He a software developer but nonetheless keeps a lab notebook for each client. Forensics and proof of precedence are part of that, of course, but as he points out we often try solutions that don’t work out and those experiments aren’t committed anywhere so other developers or our future selves won’t have access to that information and are apt to repeat the failed experiment. By keeping a lab notebook, that information is captured and made available when needed in the future.
I agree with all that but to tell the truth, the thing I liked most about Bleckley’s post is his link to Vela Labnotebooks. These are really beautiful notebooks and have things like numbered pages, a table of contents, and other amenities that make capturing your work easy. I much prefer to keep a digital notebook but for forensic reasons that isn’t always possible. When it isn’t, these Vela notebooks are a great solution.