Biologists are exploring new ways to foster the development and use of advanced technologies to solve fundamental challenges in the biosciences. This interdisciplinary crossfertilization has become a hallmark of American science. Breakthroughs have often been stimulated by efforts to develop technologies to solve significant research problems that were previously technology-limited. 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.