Mihir Rao

There are walls in science that need to be broken down for the sake of biology.

Life is an abstraction of chemical and physical processes. Each discipline has traditionally focused on reality at different scales, yet both, along with traditional descriptive biology, seem relevant to the quantitative arena biology is today. People like Stephen Wolfram have shown that computation, much like mathematics, is a fundamental representation of logic and physical laws, so it is no surprise that ideas from computer science seem to emerge in living systems. Take thymic education, for example.

There is a sense of both intellectual and practical comfort in restricting oneself to a type of scientific engagement. A theorist/computational scientist does not need to worry about maintaining equipment and performing intricate experimental protocols. Similarly, traditional experimentalists need not concern themselves with the rich opportunities for mathematics, physics, and computer science to deliver biological insights.

We must urgently force ourselves to lose this sense of comfort.

Constructing an engineerable blueprint of life is a grand endeavor consisting of solutions to health, general intelligence, energy, and the climate. To get there, we must think in systems and from first principles. Innovation by superscientists who integrate the natural sciences with mathematics, computer science, and engineering principles, as well as seamlessly move between the blackboard, bench, and computer, is necessary.