Convergence Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Beyond (2014) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 17-30
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From page 17... ...
The overall ecosystem needed to foster and sustain convergence draws not only on academic contributors but increasingly also on the cross-fertilization of ideas with stakeholders and partners from national laboratories, industry, clinical settings, and funding bodies, as well as 1 Throughout the rest of the report, the term "physical sciences" is commonly used as shorthand to include fields such as physics, chemistry, materials science, and the mathematical and computational sciences.
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Satellite-based global positioning systems that applied physical principles, including the development of accurate atomic clocks corrected for gravitational and atmospheric effects, now underpin vehicle navigation systems and provide location data for ubiquitous mobile phone and tablet computer apps (IOP 2009; Lucibella 2012)
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Making use of the wealth of information that molecular biology, genomics, and the other "omics" fields are now yielding will require contributions from multiple disciplines, moving beyond the first revolution of interdisciplinary molecular and cellular biology and the second revolution of genomics to a third revolution marked by transformative integration of life sciences, physical sciences, medicine, and engineering (Sharp and Langer 2011; Sharp et al.
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. The key message of convergence, however, is that merging ideas, approaches, and technologies from widely diverse fields of knowledge at a high level of integration is one crucial strategy for solving complex problems and addressing complex intellectual questions underlying emerging disciplines.
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These components catalyze a technology boom as innovators from multiple fields work through the possibilities. In biomedicine, convergence will be one essential strategy for making progress in the treatment of disease to improve health outcomes while lowering costs, but a number of real-world problems do not respect disciplinary boundaries and a convergence approach has the potential to benefit many areas of research and development.
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Bottom, the New Biology, which focuses on the life sciences, draws on integration of multiple scientific fields in the creation of biology-based solutions to societal challenges. SOURCE: Top, reprinted by permission of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; (The figure is found in the Executive Summary of ARISE II, Advancing Research in Science and Engineering: Unleashing America's Research & Innovation Enterprise, available at http://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/ ARISEII_ExecutiveSummary.pdf)
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have examined key opportunities enabled by science that occur at the intersections of disciplines and have set forth the view that multiple fields are poised to make significant advances if communities collaborate across
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A New Biology, in particular, argues that advances in biological research will accelerate if directed toward grand challenges and that integrating life sciences research with other disciplines will gain a deeper understanding of biological systems and achieve new biology-based solutions to critical societal problems in the areas of health, environment, energy, and food (see Figure 1-2, bottom)
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. 1.3.4 Implementing Convergence Builds on Prior Reports In order to be successful at harnessing the combined transformative potential of life and physical sciences with engineering, key stakeholders across the research enterprise need to think strategically about the policies necessary to support such efforts and how to implement and sustain them.
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It also considers the opportunities and challenges that arise from expanding convergent research initiatives to include contributions from additional fields such as the economic and social sciences and humanities. 1.4 INSTITUTIONS NEED GUIDANCE TO FOSTER CONVERGENCE EFFECTIVELY Now is an opportune time to consider steps that can be taken to foster convergence among biological, physical, and engineering sciences.
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The Tissue Chip Project, a collaboration among NIH, DARPA, and the Food and Drug Administration, aims to foster convergence among tissue engineering, cell biology, microfluidics, analytical chemistry, physiology, drug development, and regulatory science to develop three-dimensional chips that mimic human physiology. NSF's Integrated Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education program, the National Cancer Institute's Alliance for Cancer Nanotechnology and Physical Sciences Oncology Centers, and DARPA's Quantitative Effects in Biological Environments are other examples.
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A cross section of over 100 participants ranging from graduate students to senior institutional leaders to scientists from foundations and agencies gathered at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. (see Appendix B)
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Rather, it seeks to make science practitioners and institutional leaders aware of complementary bodies of knowledge that may provide further insights into ways they can meet the challenge of nurturing environments in which convergence occurs. Chapter 4 builds on the examples presented during the project's data-gathering workshop as it begins to formulate a picture of how convergence can be fostered in organizational settings.
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