Interdisciplinarity

In 2009, the director of the National Science Foundation gave a key note address at an interdisciplinary conference on synthetic biology sponsored by the National Academies. The director opened with the following joke:

“A synthetic biologist and a social scientist await death at the hands of an executioner. The executioner asks the social scientist if he has a final wish. Yes, he says, I have some new findings on the societal and ethical dimensions of synthetic biology and I want to present them to the scientific community before I die. The executioner then turns to the synthetic biologist and asks if she has a final wish. Yes, she said, just shoot me before I have to listen to that lecture.”

It’s a good joke. I have sat through many lectures over the years that make me sympathize with the synthetic biologist. Lest he offend anyone in the audience, the director quickly followed the joke with a disclaimer that certainly no one in the present audience harbored such sentiments. Nonetheless, the joke is instructive on several levels.

Synthetic biology is merely...