Building A Bridge BetweenChemistry and Biology

Richard N. ZareDepartment of Chemistry

Stanford UniversityStanford, California 94305-5080 USA

zare@stanford.edu

Biology Chemistry

What Is The Problem?

Chemistry is mostly about molecules

Biology is mostly about organisms

EmergenceEmergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of simple interactions.

We need to understand regulation/feedback

We need to go BEYOND THE MOLECULE

Some Examples

"Team Science: The Good, The Bad,

and The Ugly"

Issues in Team Science

What Are The Drivers?

Lure of solving complex problems

More funding

More impact

The Nature of Interdisciplinary Studies

Knowledge arrives as a whole.

Universities disintegrate knowledge, department by department.

The promise of interdisciplinary studies is to reintegrate knowledge to promote discovery.

What Are The Drawbacks?

Importance of Communication Completion Credit

Goal

Diverse groups working together,

making creative contributions

to complex problems

at the cutting edge,

and extending themselves

to individually unreachable heights

is Team Science at its best.