Technology often drives science, just as science drives technological change. This has long been an article of faith at Rice University. To an unusual extent, our leading engineers have always been active in discovery, and our top scientists have long been very much involved with applications. Working across science and engineering, they have helped create entirely new branches of learning, such as nanoscale science, now giving rise to technological revolutions that profoundly affect society.

Research at Rice has benefited greatly from the overlapping nature of information technology, the biosciences, nanoscale science, and environmental science as demonstrated in the diagram to the right.

Four Defining Technologies of the 21st Century

It is now widely recognized that four of the defining technologies of the 21st century will be nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and environmental science. At Rice, our shorthand expression for these technologies is: nano-bio-info-enviro. As it happens, scientific and engineering research on our campus has focused quite purposefully on this quartet of interconnected, interdisciplinary fields.

The four technologies just cited could provide humans with capacities for exerting an unprecedented degree of control over our environment and, perhaps, even our evolution. As a result, the potential both for improving the quality and increasing the length of life has never been greater. On the other hand, increasing social and economic misery could result from unwise deployment of technological marvels that foul air, water, and the food chain.

Moreover, we need to bear in mind that all four technologies involve ethical thickets not yet well explored by humankind. The information revolution carries with it thorny issues of privacy. The biomedical revolution, especially in genetics, is replete with ethical issues involving life and death, and some—including corporate chieftains—have expressed grave concern over the very remote likelihood of self-assembly in nanotechnology. And all the new technologies offer practical methods for improving air and water quality as well as pose risks to the environment.