William G Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory

If this were a documentary, the working title would be "Sex and the Single Sea Urchin: Just Another Day at the Beach," and it would start off with an old-style newsreel. Opening scene: Flickering black-and-white images of a laboratory at Columbia University in New York City nearly a century ago. Noted biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan peers through a magnifying glass at a jar of fruit flies, which produce new generations every 12 days.

If this were a documentary, the working title would be "Sex and the Single Sea Urchin: Just Another Day at the Beach," and it would start off with an old-style newsreel. Opening scene: Flickering black-and-white images of a laboratory at Columbia University in New York City nearly a century ago. Noted biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan peers through a magnifying glass at a jar of fruit flies, which produce new generations every 12 days.

Don't be fooled by the glamorous facade of the Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory, the 1920s-era building complete with castle-like tower that sits in China Cove, near the entrance to Newport Harbor. Inside, the building looks like the biology lab that it is, complete with cluttered desks, high-tech microscopes and windowless research rooms, where the the million-dollar ocean view goes begging. The Kerckhoff lab, directly across from the Newport jetty, amid stylish homes and a high-rise apartment building, has been part of Caltech's biology department since 1929.