Chapter 19 - Converging Paths

Summary

Lobbying, scientific elasticity, and serendipity can all lead to divergent research paths. But there is also an alternative method of changing the trajectory of discovery, which is the focus of Chapter 19: convergence. Conceptually, convergence can loosely be defined as the trajectories of different fields meeting at a common point or area. While very similar to the concept of interdisciplinarity, convergence is more structural and fundamental than the simple exchange of ideas denoted by interdisciplinarity. It doesn’t merely imply people from different backgrounds working together, but rather the effect of entire fields fusing - such as computing and biology combining to create computational biology - opening new avenues of thought and discovery. Chapter 19 is about how convergence can increase the rate of medical discovery, as well as how we can more systematically cultivate convergence in medical science.