The Sciences at a Christian University

Marianna A. Busch, Professor and Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Excerpt

... This year marks the 50th anniversary of the elucidation of the structure of DNA, so it is perhaps appropriate to use DNA to illustrate how connected the scientific enterprise can be. An understanding of the structure of DNA, which is arguably the most important of all molecules to our understanding of life and human health, required the knowledge and intuition of a geneticist and a biophysicist, data obtained using instrumentation developed by a physicist, and molecular modeling and chemical bonding concepts developed by chemists. The scientific disciplines are a very connected branch of knowledge and the solution to important scientific problems almost always requires an interdisciplinary approach.