The lab coat is far from dead, however. Outside of the medical world, it remains the uniform of choice for most laboratory work, and scientists are constantly tweaking and reworking the design.

Leslie Latterman is one of those who’ve improved substantially on the traditional lab coat, rebuilding it from scratch with women in mind. In 2014, after a long night shift during which she complained her lab coat was “dingy and heavy and it fit me like a tent,” she gathered together a group of women doctors to come up with a solution.

The result was the Signature Lab Coat. It adds several features that elevate it above the traditional design, from velcro epaulets that can securely store a stethoscope, to an internal wallet, roll-up sleeves, soft antibacterial fabric, and dedicated pockets for pagers, cellphones, instruments, and pens. Most importantly, it’s cut to fit a woman’s body, rather than a man’s.

MIT’s Media Lab has also reworked the traditional lab coat into something more suitable. “Media Lab researchers are not only scientists — we are also designers, tinkerers, philosophers and artists,” wrote the group responsible for the redesign on a dedicated website. “We need a different coat!”

They set out to rethink the lab coat as a framework for customization. “It features reflective materials, new bonding techniques, and integrated electronics,” the team wrote. “Each Labber has different needs. Some require access to Arduinos, others need moulding materials, yet others carry around motors or smart tablets.” The group also plans to explore protective eye-wear, shoe-wear, and more in the future.

The MIT Media Lab Coat. Image credit: MIT Media Lab

But for perhaps the most interesting glimpse at how the lab coat of the future could differ from today’s, we should turn to Gerhard Mohr — a textiles researcher at the Joanneum Research Institute in Austria. His team is developing textiles that change their color when exposed to toxic or dangerous substances.

You can imagine how useful that could be in a laboratory setting. “[Lab coats or work gloves] are being coated with dyes that respond to substances that could burn your hands or if carbon monoxide is in the air — a poisonous gas that you can neither smell nor taste,” he told Compamed Magazine in a 2014 interview.

“Other application areas include textile-based wound dressings in clinical diagnostics with which you can measure pH levels in wounds. You could color wound dressings with dye that for instance changes its color from green to red in case of increasing pH. This is therefore an immediate signaling effect: green means everything looks good; red means you need to act accordingly.”