Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

The complex nature of societal problems has fuelled arguments that such issues can only be addressed by holistic responses which are informed by high-quality policy, practice and techno-scientific research. As a result, research councils are encouraging the development of interdisciplinary research consortia through which the strengths of various scientific and social scientific disciplines can be harnessed to produce coherent, well-informed and cross-disciplinary outputs. Yet the task of managing such projects is problematic. The paper draws on the authors’ experiences of managing one such consortium, SUBR:IM (Sustainable Brownfield Regeneration: Integrated Management). We reflect upon the processes and politics of building a broadly-based consortium and argue that, while the benefits of such endeavours can be significant, research councils need to give greater recognition to the barriers that exist to achieving genuine collaboration, such as disciplinary incommensurabilities, centrally imposed constraints and internal resistance. The paper explores these barriers before identifying possible ways forward, including better processes of consortia building, more effective internal structures, focusing on a single case study and recruiting the right mix of academics.

Interdisciplinary education and research are increasingly in demand in land use, environment and development because understanding complex human-nature relationships requires a holistic approach. While the need for interdisciplinarity is acknowledged by most, in practice, traditional disciplines are still accorded greatest scientific recognition. This article illustrates how interdisciplinarity has been approached on an international education and research programme. A major challenge was how to strike a balance between interdisciplinarity and specialization, and a specific model based on problem-oriented group work and specialized research teams was developed which successfully negotiated this divide, according to a comprehensive student evaluation. International co-operation among Denmark, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Botswana has revealed structural and cultural barriers to the implementation of interdisciplinary programmes. Successful negotiation of these barriers requires personal relations based on long-term commitment which was achieved in this case through the study programme and annual joint student field courses.

Contemporary science can be characterized by large-scale multi-sited interdisciplinary co-operation. This kind of co-operation is thought necessary for solving complex scientific problems and, by doing so, to reach the social and normative goals of science, for instance, the promotion of public health. In this paper, we present an analysis of a large-scale multi-sited scientific practice questioning the latter assumption. Do the strategies to solve scientific problems indeed contribute to the normative goals of large-scale science? To be able to analyse problem solving in multi-sited scientific practice, first we introduce the concept of doability, and we amend this notion to make it suited for multi-sited research practices. Second, we will demonstrate the fruitfulness of this conceptual frame by presenting an analysis of the field of nutrigenomics, in which large-scale research is organized to contribute to ‘health for all’. Third and finally, we will show that the strategies to make research problems in the large-scale multi-sited research practice of nutrigenomics doable do not necessarily contribute to a public health aim. In fact, making the study of nutrigenomic problems doable implies that the goal of health has to be fragmented into many distinct norms for health.

The impact of human activities on the environment is perhaps now reaching its greatest level of awareness in human history. There is concern regarding health effects of pollutants generated by industry, climate change related to burning of fossil fuels and effects of anthropogenic activities in terms of promoting the extinction of biological species. Proposals are being put forward at local, national and international levels to preserve biodiversity. It is commonly believed that human activities, if not controlled, will lead to dramatic decreases in the earth's biodiversity. In this report, temporal perspectives of biodiversity (e.g. from palaeontology) are emphasized both as reasons for conservation and as possible errors of reasoning in conservation debates. Questions and novel implications related to an integral view of humans as a part of nature are also presented in the context of related environmental issues.

Biology needs revolution. All my adult life, I have been lost with admiration for the achievements in molecular biology and genetics, and I have come to know many of the main proponents. Yet there is an alternative aspect: in studying the minutiae, we have lost sight of the whole cell as organism. Living cells within the body are modelled in this paper as coordinated but essentially autonomous entities. We shall see how independent cells in nature have remarkable abilities to make decisions and take constructive action, which correlate with the definitions of intelligence.

We are taught that the brain controls everything that goes on in the body, yet in this paper, we discover that most of the body's cells are invisible to the brain and are indifferent to its regulation. We encounter a novel model of the brain in which the neuron is viewed as an ingenious entity that ‘thinks’ within itself. The brain is not a ‘super computer’ but an entire community of them. We shall set the reductionism of molecular biology and the elementary mechanisms of genetics into a more realistic perspective and will recognize that the cell as organism matters above all. In future, whole cell biology should become the focus of the biosciences and the intelligent cell lies at its heart.

The Russian-born artist Naum Gabo (1890–1977) often employed new materials and techniques which demonstrate how his spatial conceptions developed towards a sculptural expression of lightness, balance and equilibrium. These principles reverberate with concepts of optimum structures, in which minimum-weight design is achieved through removal of redundant material. Not only formal aspects of his sculptures correspond to this concept, but also Gabo's shared aesthetic and structural concerns with twentieth-century architecture and engineering, in terms of transparency, spatial openness, efficiency and lightweight design are consistent with this idea. Similar notions surfaced in prevailing interests in nature's sense of order and perfection as the basis of biologically-inspired design, which Gabo encountered especially in the work of the biologist D'Arcy Thompson and the art critic Herbert Read. This paper investigates the aesthetic and structural affinities Gabo's sculptures bear with these notions, highlighting how these informed his sculptural conceptions. His oeuvre demonstrates how his constructive technique enabled Gabo to convey an aesthetic that would be appropriate for a modern, industrial society. The aim of this paper is to offer a new way of looking at Gabo's sculptural aesthetic by identifying analogies with theoretical formulations of minimum weight frame-structures, as encountered in the theory of the scientist engineer A.G.M. Michell (1904). Consistent with his historical context, this work demonstrates how Gabo's sculptures convey an aesthetic of balance, equilibrium, and lightness precisely because his sculptural language is rooted in principles of optimum structures to which he responded in visual as well as structural terms.