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Shake, rattle and roll: IRIS's seismic monitor will be used in educational work (www.iris.edu).

The geosciences are opening up to approaches that embrace multidisciplinary solutions to emerging and age-old problems. This should result in much interesting research, and challenges for scientists and funding agencies.

Billed as “The future of Earth sciences: the challenges and opportunities of multiple disciplines and diversity”, the recent fiftieth anniversary of the American Geological Institute (AGI) in Washington, DC, was not only a birthday party, it was a chance to assess future needs and strategies. The need to make society aware of the importance of Earth science issues, and to pursue research that is relevant to society, were major themes of this one-day symposium. Other themes included multidisciplinary research, lateral thinking, and education and outreach.

Proponents of the multidisciplinary approach look set to get their opportunity to prove its value. Rita Colwell, director of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), recently called interdisciplinary research “nothing short of vital” and said she regarded this approach to science as “one of the major challenges for NSF in the coming years” (see Nature 396 202; 1998).

For Mary Lou Zoback of the US Geological Survey, the grand challenge for the Earth sciences is to focus on themes rather than disciplines. She suggested several themes, including the need to recognize the signal of natural variability, to quantify the anthropogenic effect on climate and to look at the feedback loop between natural and perturbed systems. Zoback said a problem-based structure was needed at NSF rather than one based on traditional disciplines. Colwell seems to agree, having described “departmental structure as a block” to multidiscipinary research. Zoback hopes that a theme-orientated structure will focus more on the Earth's surface, integrating the study of the bio-, litho-, atmo- and hydrospheres to tackle today's most pressing problems.

Jonathan Price, state geologist for Nevada, says multidisciplinary work has been going on for some time in the applied geosciences, and this does not mean simply bringing together people who study reflection seismology, stratigraphy and plate tectonics. Several years ago, the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology put together an earthquake emergency scenario. It included a lot of geology and seismology, said Price, but also had input from people with expertise in engineering geology, civil and structural engineering, emergency management, medicine, building inspection, law enforcement, and disaster relief, as well as businesspeople and government officials. Price emphasized that the skills of traditional Earth scientists will continue to be important and stated that “realizing what one's limitations are will become increasingly important as the field becomes more multidisciplinary”.

It is not always true that multidisciplinary study means a group activity, according to Stephen Stanley, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. His studies have taken him far afield into climatology, oceanography, physical anthropology, palaeontology, and other areas. He said: “I'm not an expert in all these fields, but I consult people who are — and I know how to read. Exciting cross-disciplinary ideas entail connections, and a group of individuals lacks the neuronal connections of a single brain. There is often much to be gained, not by collaborating with others, but by collaborating with yourself.”

Lateral thinking may mean different things in different sectors. To Donald Paul, vice-president of technical and environmental affairs at Chevron, it might mean applying geoscience to being a consulting specialist, a product developer, a systems integrator or a marketing manager. According to Thomas Hamilton, chairman, president and chief executive of EEX Corporation, these concepts mean being comfortable with several disciplines and learning the language of integrated solutions. In today's global village, understanding political science, diplomacy and culture can be more important to a project than a specific technology.