What Exactly Is Biocomplexity?

Since this expedition is being primarily funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation, Biocomplexity Program, I wanted to make sure that each and every one of you visiting the Web site and participating in Extreme 2004 understands what biocomplexity means.

The interplay between life and its environment is complex. Biocomplexity arises from the multitude of behavioral, biological, social, chemical, and physical interactions that affect, sustain, or are modified by living organisms, including humans. From cells to cities to the global ecosystem, all systems associated with life exhibit biocomplexity. The National Science Foundation has taken on an exciting new direction of challenging the scientific community to collaborate across disciplines under the umbrella of Biocomplexity. The idea is that with collaboration, we can better understand the complex interplay of biological, chemical, and physical components of the environment. Research on biocomplexity asks questions as diverse as: How do systems with living components (such as people) respond and adapt to stress? Are adaptation and change predictable? How will climate change affect species' ranges? Can we forecast the combined effects of changing climate and socioeconomic change? How does diversity (species, genetic, cultural) affect system stability?

So, these NSF Biocomplexity projects have to address questions that span disciplines and collectively involve scientists fluent in those disciplines that are willing and excited about crossing the lines. Sounds easy? Well, consider taking the head coaches from two sports at your school ­- say , basketball and football -- and telling them one day that they had to suddenly switch. What would make this very difficult is that in their sports, they speak very different languages ­- and in sports, like science, communication is everything ­- without it, interaction is impossible. Our team's greatest challenge has and will be communication because our sciences have rarely interacted. Why, you might ask? It's called "moving out of your comfort zone." Scientists love to focus in and understand some natural phenomenon -- many might spend the better part of their entire life on one subject. They can easily become the world's expert! But to move marginally outside that discipline is often a daunting task. Our group has certainly felt the growing pains of having to learn the language of each of our new colleagues' science, but it is clear that the rewards are considerable.

Our team (only some are on the ship) consists of a group of researchers interested in microbial ecology, geochemistry, functional genomics (what and how genes work), bioinformatics (using computers to allow us to look at and analyze data), and proteins (how proteins adapt to high temperature). In order to keep up with what each of us is doing and to learn the new languages, we have a virtual meeting (conference call) every week. The project we are working on involves understanding how a microbial community on the back of the Pompeii worm interacts and adapts to its changing environment. To do this, since the bacteria can not be grown in culture, we must use genomic technologies borrowed from the Human Genome Project. These technologies allow us to understand what the bacteria can do (genetically) and what they are actually doing in order to survive in this extreme environment. This project will require the time and energy of 20 investigators for 4 years to achieve this objective. More on this later. I would suggest that you take a look at the NSF Biocomplexity Web page to see just how NSF defines biocomplexity and the diversity of projects currently supported. Can you come up with your own Biocomplexity research questions? Explain how they fit into NSF's definition.