Biology Lab (SMAC)

Biology Lab
Requires	Centauri Empathy
Cost	6 rows
Maintenance cost	1
Effects	+1 lifecycle to psi units, +2 LABS per turn

Back to list of base facilities

"Although Planet's native life is based, like Earth's, on right-handed DNA, and codes for all the same amino acids, the inevitable chemical and structural differences from a billion years of evolution in an alien environment render the native plant life highly poisonous to humans. Juicy, ripe grenade fruits may look appealing, but a mouthful of organonitrates will certainly change your mind in a hurry."
– Lady Deirdre Skye, "A Comparative Biology of Planet"

Biology Lab is a base facility in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

Strategy

There's only one reason to build a Biology Lab, and that is for the +1 Lifecycle Native Life gets when built here. Without a decent level of Lifecycle, your worms and locusts will just get mashed. If you are planning on pursuing an all-worm strategy, these facilities are your Command Centers. The comments about Command Centers apply equally here, but more so, as Morale/Lifecycle is much more important in psi-combat.

The +2 Labs per turn is insignificant unless you're planning on building them everywhere, but I don't recommend the investment in these for the purpose of boosting your research. Paying 1 ec/turn for 2 Labs/Turn may sound like a good deal, but with your six rows of minerals (worth about 120 ec) you could have built two crawlers, which I guarantee will be able to crawl you more energy than the +1 you gain from just the Biolab (which will make a profit in the 123rd turn after its built)

Note that the plus 2 labs is affected by research hospitals/network nodes etc., despite no written indication anywhere.

Biology labs may become viable to build for research purposes late in the game, when you have built the other facilities and your large bases can complete them in 1 or 2 turns.