Bringing scientists into collaboration - Top schools create new research approach (Oct 20, 2003) is an article from David Perlman of the San Francisco Chronicle that focuses on a promising trend in scientific research - interdisciplinary collaboration. Obviously these groups will be relying on technology to make their collaboration seemless across distances, whether cross-country or cross-campus. It's also easy to guess that high bandwidth will be a necessity to keep up with the volumes of data needed to support the research.

 "The world of science is changing swiftly today as researchers in fields as widely diverse as physics, medicine, genetics and engineering find themselves working together in new academic melting pots.

"With funding from government, foundations and industry, at least half a dozen universities are creating new research institutions where the watchword is "interdisciplinary collaboration,'' including Caltech, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, the University of California and the University of Michigan.

"All the exciting stuff in science is happening now at the interface between engineering, biology and the physical sciences," says Michael Isaacson, a physicist at UC Santa Cruz now deeply involved in linking medicine and nanotechnology (the development of devices that operate at the "nano" scale).

...

"Behind this new trend is a realization that many of the toughest problems in medicine and biology cannot be solved in the traditional way -- with scientists pursuing their work in isolation. Promoters of the new approach predict it will yield both expected and unexpected benefits. "

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