Outside the Box: Crossing Disciplines at MIT

PRESENTER: 40 years from now, we'll have three billion more people on the earth.

HOCKFIELD: There's a huge growing demand for energy.

CANIZARES: Energy

PRESENTER: Health care

CANIZARES: Transportation.

PRESENTER: Cancer is a complex disease.

PRESENTER: Tumor cells can be incredibly hard to kill.

CANIZARES: Absolutely huge challenges.

HOCKFIELD: Solving the most important problems.

PRESENTER: Imagine taking quantum dots and attaching biological structures to them.

HOCKFIELD: The new batteries that have been basically built by viruses.

PRESENTER: The solar cell built on a piece of paper.

PRESENTER: Smart bombs for cancer.

SARPESHKAR: The truly hard problems of science and engineering don't neatly fitting within the box of any one discipline.

CANIZARES: It's not going to be easy, and it's going to take determination.

HOCKFIELD: New science to be done. New technology to be developed. New policies. A new understanding of our history.

ZUBER: I think it's easier to collaborate across disciplines here than it is anywhere else. People who want to solve hard problems, who want to push the frontiers of ignorance, who want to create the future, they want to be here.