How is it that you can do human-subject research without ever seeing, touching, or talking to another human being? If you cannot answer that riddle, you could conduct an entire research project and be forbidden to publish the results. Young investigators may throw up their hands when faced by this maze of approval processes. How can an institution say it wants faculty members to conduct research and then erect so many hurdles? Blame it on the federal government, which provides much of the money to conduct the research and therefore sets the rules. Institutions take those regulations seriously because failure to comply can hit them in the pocketbook through loss of grant dollars. Provided is a rundown of the research-safety panels that exist at most institutions, along with a brief description of what they do. The intent is to alert researchers to situations where they might need to gain official approval before beginning their work, thus enabling them to plan ahead instead of getting caught short.