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Suggested Citation:"3 Wrap-up and Next Steps." National Research Council. 2010. Implementing the New Biology: Decadal Challenges Linking Food, Energy, and the Environment: Summary of a Workshop, June 3-4, 2010. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13018.
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3
Wrap-up and Next Steps

The workshop was not designed to end with final consensus or recommendations, and none are given here. However, certain points of discussion resonated with participants:

  • New Biology can help achieve carbon neutrality in food and biofuel. Discussion throughout the workshop centered on impact, projected time lines, and the many different aspects of science and technology to be integrated and focused.

  • Basic, foundational research in plant science has many gaps that need to be filled to achieve carbon neutrality as well as the many other plant improvements discussed. By focusing on the kinds of societal needs discussed here, this research could inspire the necessary support and enabling technologies essential for meeting the challenges.

  • Different approaches will be necessary to engage stakeholders with very different perspectives, areas of expertise, and needs in these issues. The public and policy makers may respond best to projected problems related to food, energy, the environment, and health, and how New Biology approaches can lead to cures. Diverse scientific communities need to be inspired and excited about the research to find solutions. If the “top talents” of the future—whether they become biologists, physicists, computational scientists, or other experts—are inspired through public out-reach and educational opportunities, they, too, will join in the pursuit.

Suggested Citation:"3 Wrap-up and Next Steps." National Research Council. 2010. Implementing the New Biology: Decadal Challenges Linking Food, Energy, and the Environment: Summary of a Workshop, June 3-4, 2010. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13018.
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As Dr. Yamamoto thanked the group for participating in this “first experiment” of workshops, he said its work will stimulate activity to use New Biology to solve the challenges that the world, and the United States in particular, face related to food, energy, and the environment.

Suggested Citation:"3 Wrap-up and Next Steps." National Research Council. 2010. Implementing the New Biology: Decadal Challenges Linking Food, Energy, and the Environment: Summary of a Workshop, June 3-4, 2010. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13018.
×
Page 25
Suggested Citation:"3 Wrap-up and Next Steps." National Research Council. 2010. Implementing the New Biology: Decadal Challenges Linking Food, Energy, and the Environment: Summary of a Workshop, June 3-4, 2010. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13018.
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Page 26
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As the second decade of the 21st century begins, the challenge of how to feed a growing world population and provide sustainable, affordable energy to fulfill daily needs, while also improving human health and protecting the environment, is clear and urgent. Increasing demand for food and energy is projected at the same time as the supply of land and other resources decrease. Increasing levels of greenhouse gasses alter climate, which, in turn, has life-changing implications for a broad range of plant and animal species.

But promising developments are on the horizon--scientific discoveries and technologies that have the potential to contribute practical solutions to these seemingly intractable problems. As described in the 2009 National Research Council book, A New Biology for the 21st Century, biological research has experienced extraordinary scientific and technological advances in recent years that have allowed biologists to collect and make sense of ever more detailed observations at ever smaller time intervals. With these advances have come increasingly fruitful collaborations of biologists with scientists and engineers from other disciplines.

A New Biology for the 21st Century called for a series of workshops to provide concrete examples of what New Biology research programs could look like. The present volume summarizes the first of those workshops, Implementing the New Biology: Decadal Challenges Linking Food, Energy, and the Environment.

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