Introduction to Multidisciplinary Science in an Artificial-Intelligence Age: The Matter in our Universe, Biological Cells, and Plate Tectonics

Higher science education is about preparing people to address the scientific and technological challenges of our times. The list of these challenges includes, but are not limited to, feeding the world’s growing population, improving the length and quality of lives on Earth, improving short- and long- distance communication and transportation, predicting of, adapting to, and mitigating of natural hazards, and exploring space to improve our lives on Earth and for the survival of our civilization. This book prepares students to understand and address these challenges because these challenges, even in most of their narrow focuses, transcend the current college curriculums or programs. The Earth’s climate change is an example of the narrow focus of the large topic of natural hazards. It spans almost all aspects of modern sciences, including biology, chemistry, and physics. Moreover, the span of these challenges may also be telling us that we have to rethink higher sciences education because the current splintering of science education into endless disciplines may not be the best or a unique way to prepare minds to address these challenges. We may be locking great young minds to a certain viewpoint forever, an unintended indoctrination. At least some universities and colleges must start moving away from the monolithic way of delivering higher science education or to create a multidisciplinary science as a separate program and hopefully unleash a new generation of super engineers and scientists who are speaking scientific language. Moreover, this approach may optimize the higher education time for some people.