EARTH SYSTEMS OVERVIEW

Earth Systems brings a fresh outlook to environmental topics, ranging from the genetic modification of organisms to climate change and sustainability, as well as other global concerns. Although interdisciplinary work has found far greater acceptance here, the density and complexity of these problems present the opportunity for a new approach even within the environmental research community's broader purview.

Some of the topics explored will include the study of how artifacts of modern industrial culture affect the global environment; others will explore a single natural phenomenon from the perspective of the several disciplines which study it.

In addition, this program area will track questions within the burgeoning new interdisciplinary area of astrobiology, which explores the origins of life on earth and beyond from the perspective of a dazzling number of disciplines, including biology, genetics, paleontology, geology, geochemistry, biochemistry, astrophysics, astronomy and cosmology.