Research at the Interface between
Physical
and Biological Sciences
B. Swanson
Los Alamos National Laboratory
CST-1, MS J565
Los Alamos, NM 87545
(505) 667-5814
(505) 665-4631 FAX
Two compelling lessons in materials science have emerged over the last decade. First, many electronic and structural materials exhibit functionality at multiple scales, from atomic through mesoscales to macroscopic continua. This lesson is the result of remarkable advances in measurement and instrumentation capabilities, of controlled syntheses, of modeling and simulation tools, and of the demands from present and future technologies. The second lesson is one of molecular level control of materials where complex, hierarchical materials are built from a molecular level up with the attendant control of macroscopic properties. This second lesson results from novel, molecular level approaches to materials synthesis (e.g., self-assembly, combinatorial approaches, gels) and our better understanding of biological materials that has permitted us to mimic the function of living systems while also using biology's building blocks for new bio-inspired materials.
Multiscale functionality and molecular level control are strategies that nature uses. It transcends traditional boundaries between "hard" (e.g. complex oxides) and "soft" (e.g. polymers); between disciplines (chemistry, solid-state physics, biology); or electronic and structural materials. It carries elements of "complexity" and "adaptability" which have the exciting prospects of opening a fundamentally new era of understanding, controlling and using matter. It replaces the prevailing notion that complexity should be engineered away for optimal "single crystals". The new era will only be possible if we understand the scientific principles determining (i) how microscopic interactions control mesoscales, and ultimately macroscopic functions; (ii) how living systems build functionality into complex self-organized materials and how we can control organic and inorganic materials to duplicate this biological control. These are the principles of understanding and controlling matter.
Reaching this predictive level of understanding requires a new approach to interdisciplinary research that enables techniques, insights, and strategies to be shared efficiently between traditional disciplines. LANL and many other institutions have made important but tentative steps in this direction over recent years. At LANL, institutional resources have been invested in several competency development thrusts that are at the heart of CAM. The National Science Foundation has similarly invested in large scale cross-disciplinary research efforts (e.g., MRSECs) in academia and a number of these are focused on frontier areas of materials research and on complexity in materials. Although many institutions possess broad bases of skills and facilities, it will not be possible to make significant contributions to CAM until a broad-based network that leverages off several different institutions can be established. Moreover, if we are to truly span soft, hard and biological materials we must focus on the interface between the physical and biological sciences.
This is at the heart of what I believe ICAM should do-facilitate collaborations among research scientists from across the nation especially at the overlap regions between the physical and biological sciences. The usual mechanisms-support for students and postdoctoral fellows that work between labs, support for workshops, support for exchanges between research staff-are all important. What makes ICAM so challenging is the difficulty of promoting science at the interface between two macro-disciplines (biological and physical sciences) that rarely talk to each other and that have distinct languages of their own. For this reason, the emphasis for ICAM must, in my view, be in supporting research at the interface between the biological and physical sciences and in the development of a common language between these distinct enterprises.