Millennial Biology: The National Science Foundation and American Biology, 1975-2005: 1975-2005

National Science Foundation (NSF) is a unique federal agency because it supports scientific research financially, but does not engage in scientific work itself. Its history is known only in part because the NSF is a vibrant, expanding, and living entity that makes the final telling of its story impossible. Much can be learned from its beginning as well as its component parts. If the founding of the NSF in 1950 was couched in an era of physics, especially atomic physics, certainly by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, biology was, and remains, the queen of sciences for the predictable future. This book highlights the elite status of America’s biological sciences as they were funded, affected, and, to a very real degree, interactively guided by the NSF. It examines important events in the earlier history of the Foundation because they play strongly upon the development of the various biology directorates. Issues such as education, applied research, medical science, the National Institutes of Health, the beginnings of biotechnology, and other matters are also discussed. Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Note on Sources Contents About the Author Abbreviations List of Figures Chapter 1: The Year 1975 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Arenas of Contention 1.3 Life Begins at 1975 1.4 The Question of Medical Science 1.4.1 The Social Sciences: First Thoughts 1.5 Biotechnology’s Birth and the 1975 Reorganization 1.6 The Biological Sciences After the Reorganization of 1975 1.7 First Appearances of Big Biology 1.8 First Thoughts on Reductionism and Millennial Biology Chapter 2: The Effects of the Social and Behavioral Sciences upon Biology at NSF 2.1 The Effects of the Social Sciences 2.2 A Revolving Door for Directors 2.3 Richard Atkinson: First Social Scientist Director of the NSF 2.4 The Social and Behavioral Sciences at NSF from 1975 to 1991: Effects on Biology 2.4.1 Long-Term Studies 2.4.2 Interdisciplinarity 2.4.3 Big Science 2.5 Increasing Quantitation 2.6 The Intricate Dance 2.7 Entre Acte 2.8 Increasing Computerization, Modeling, and Artificial Intelligence 2.9 The Behavioral Sciences at NSF from 1975 to 1991 2.10 Psychobiology 2.11 Technology Expanding 2.12 Neurosciences 2.13 A New Director for NSF Chapter 3: Little Biology and Biology of the Little 3.1 The Importance of DNA 3.2 The Biological Divisions Within BBS in 1975 3.2.1 PCM: The Division of Physiological, Cellular, and Molecular Biology 3.3 The Rise of Biotechnology at NSF and Its Effects 3.4 A New Decade: Expansion in the 1980s 3.5 Biotechnology Booms 3.6 Change of Command at BBS: I 3.7 Institutionalization of Biotechnology 3.8 The Rise of the Centers’ Concept 3.9 A Case Study of One Biological STC 3.10 Change of Command at BBS: II 3.11 The AC at the Close of the 1980s 3.12 Photosynthesis First, Then Plant Science Chapter 4: The Big End of the Spectrum 4.1 Ecology Reduced...And Expanded 4.2 Ecosystem Studies: The IBP, Hubbard Brook, and the Early LTER 4.3 Systematic Biology: Ordering the Living World 4.4 Population Biology and Physiological Ecology 4.5 The Ecology Program 4.6 The Biological Research Resources Program Chapter 5: A Second “Time of Tumult” and a New Home for Biology 5.1 Revolving Door Directors, et al., Redivivus 5.2 A Representative Committee? 5.3 Convening a Task Force 5.4 Heard at the Hearing 5.5 Contrary Voices Lost in Transition 5.6 A Diary of 1991 5.7 A New Home for Biology Chapter 6: Technology and the “Fearless Biologists” 6.1 Foundation for Cohesion 6.2 Founding a Division of Instrumentation and Resources 6.3 A Home for Protein and Other Macromolecular Data 6.4 Supercomputing 6.5 “Fearless Biologists” 6.6 Centered 6.7 Revolving Door Deputy Directors Redivivus...and a “New Era” 6.8 BIR’s Many Charges 6.8.1 Education and Training 6.8.2 Centers 6.8.3 Tools and Technology 6.9 A more Powerful AC...and a New Director 6.10 Biocomplexity: First Appearance 6.11 “The New Biology” 6.12 DBI in the New Millennium 6.13 The National Science Foundation at 50 Chapter 7: Genes and Beyond 7.1 Expanding Upon Genetics 7.2 An Institutional Overview of MCB 7.3 Biotechnology at Millennium’s End 7.4 STCs in Biology: The Number Grows 7.5 Some Smaller Programs 7.5.1 Metabolic Engineering 7.5.2 Molecular Evolution: MOLE 7.6 Genetics and Genomics: An Overview 7.7 Arabidopsis thaliana: “A Simple Weed” 7.8 Plant Science at NSF: Precursors and Partners to the NPGI 7.9 The National Plant Genome Initiative: NPGI 7.10 The Microbe Project 7.11 Closing Views of a COV Chapter 8: Integrating Biology 8.1 After the Reorganization 8.2 The Neuroscience Cluster 8.3 The Developmental Mechanisms Cluster 8.3.1 The Evolution of Development: Evo-Devo at BIO 8.3.2 The Microbial World: First Considerations 8.4 The Physiology and Ethology Cluster: Another Phoenix 8.4.1 The Animal Behavior Program 8.5 Maturation of Mechanisms 8.6 The Birth of IOB 8.7 When Did Integration Really Begin for Biology, the Science? Chapter 9: Expanding Big Bio 9.1 After the Reorganization 9.2 The Systematic and Population Biology Cluster 9.2.1 The Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program 9.2.2 Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy 9.2.3 Assembling the Tree of Life 9.2.4 Assessing the Systematic Biology Program 9.2.5 Populations of Organisms 9.3 The Ecological Studies Cluster 9.3.1 A New Way to Do Ecology: NCEAS 9.3.2 The NSF’s Long Interest in Water 9.3.3 Earth’s Changing Climate ... and More 9.3.4 A Companion Issue: The Biodiversity Crisis 9.3.5 Conservation and Restoration 9.3.6 A COV’s View of the Ecological Studies (ES) Cluster 9.4 Long-Term Investments: The LTPEB Cluster 9.4.1 A Cross-Directorate Program: LMER 9.4.2 Where Biology of Big and Little Met 9.5 ERE: Environmental Research and Education 9.6 The Long-Term Ecological Research Program: LTER After the Reorganization and Views of a COV 9.7 First Light: The Founding of NEON Epilogue E.1 An Era Ends E.2 What Has Been Discovered? Author Index Subject Index