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NSF PR 96-14 - April 16, 1996
Media contact: |
Cheryl Dybas |
(703) 306-1070 |
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Program contact: |
Jim Brown |
(703) 306-1470 |
jhbrown@nsf.gov |
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New Report Links Emerging Technologies to the Biosciences
Major advances in science, including the biological
sciences, have often been stimulated by the application
of new technologies to specific challenges, according
to a just released report: Impact of Emerging Technologies
on the Biological Sciences. The report identifies
the technologies that will likely have an impact on
future biological research, and is the result of a
workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation
(NSF)'s directorate for biological sciences in June
1995.
Biologists are exploring new ways to foster the development
and use of advanced technologies to solve fundamental
challenges in the biosciences. "In some cases, major
developments in one field have been applied with great
success to another area," says Mary Clutter, assistant
director of NSF for biosciences. "This interdisciplinary
crossfertilization has become a hallmark of American
science."
Continues Clutter, "The revolution occurring in the
biological sciences is based on the fact that today,
biological information can be deciphered and manipulated
at exponentially increasing rates." Breakthroughs
have often been stimulated by efforts to develop technologies
to solve significant research problems that were previously
technology-limited. For example, the size and complexity
of the genetic material that controls the form and
function of living systems required dramatic developments
in technology to map, sequence, and analyze DNA. Now,
microfabrication technologies that combine silicon
wafer material with solid- phase chemical array methods
have made it possible to screen matrices of specific
DNA sequences rapidly, and with small sample sizes.
Biology is at a crossroads, says the report. The biological
sciences have lagged behind other sciences such as
physics and chemistry in the large-scale application
of advanced technology to research problems. Over
the past 20 years, however, technology has increasingly
demonstrated its potential to catalyze revolutionary
breakthroughs in the biological sciences. From the
scanning tunneling microscope to gene cloning technology
to the remote sensing satellite, emerging technologies
have stimulated new research and even spawned new
industries. Now, continues the report, new technologies
are emerging which give promise of yielding similar
rapid advances in the biological sciences, if they
can be incorporated both into research and education
in a timely and effective way.
More advanced, automated tools are on the horizon,
based on the development of new nanofabrication and
analysis methods using hybrid technologies from biology,
chemistry, materials science, physics, engineering,
and computer science. "The common denominator in the
majority of significant advances has been the optimal
application of technology to a particular challenge,"
says Clutter. The report identifies emerging areas
of technology likely to have significant impacts on
biological research, and also those research problems
that are currently technologylimited, such as the
measurement and manipulation of chemical and molecular
processes in living systems.
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