Attempt to answer a real call
Taking Inter-Disciplinary Action
Adelaide / Berlin — Ever thought of what paper is? According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica 2005 (Ultimate Reference Suite DVD), paper is ‚the basic material used for written communication and the dissemination of information‘. However, could paper also be defined as a practical end product resulting from an inter-disciplinary combination of disciplinary solutions? Why? Consider the manufacture of paper.
Paper today comes mostly from trees. To make paper from trees, wood is turned into pulp, the raw material for paper manufacture. Technically speaking, making paper is the process of applying in a particular order a certain number of man-made tools to a raw material.
First, the bark of the tree log is stripped off in a bark-removing drum. Next, the wood goes into a grinder or a cooker to produce wood pulp, a substance consisting of millions of tiny vegetable fibres. Then, impurities and chemicals in the wood pulp are cleaned out in a washer. Next, the pulp is beaten and mixed with water in a beater to fray the fibres and help them mat together. Then, the fibres go into a Jordan refiner, where they are trimmed evenly.
Finally, the pulp ends up in the paper-making machine. Here, water drains out of the pulp through a screen, which vibrates to make the fibres interlock and mat together. The wet mat then passes under a roller that presses it down into a smoother sheet. The sheet goes through a series of pressing rolls, which squeeze out water and make the paper dense and smooth. Then, it travels through driers, a series of heated drums. At this time a coating can be applied to make the paper smooth and shiny. Paper comes off paper-making machines in large rolls, is trimmed to take off the rough edges and cut to the desired width.
Clearly, paper manufacture is an example of science at work. Various academic and scientific disciplines have left their mark, contributing specialist knowledge to a process creating a product of general practical value: engineering (e.g. bark-removing drum, grinder, etc.), biology (e.g. vegetable fibres, etc.), chemistry (e.g. grinding, cooking, etc.), economics, politics (e.g. paper from trees, etc.), to name but some of the most obvious ones. In this sense, paper manufacture is a practical example of inter-disciplinary co-operation producing an inter-disciplinary outcome.
But perhaps paper is more. Perhaps paper is also a success story. Why? Because inter-disciplinary co-operation cannot be taken for granted. Indeed, more often than not, inter-disciplinary co-operation is the exception. Surprisingly so? Reading my ⭱ academic curriculum vitae, one might reach the conclusion: ‚Butterfly mind.‘ But what if this curriculum vitae stems from the realisation that no one discipline has all the answers? What if this curriculum vitae is an attempt to answer a real call. The call for increased inter-disciplinary bridge-building to create inter-disciplinary or inter-professional solutions of mutual benefit. To help produce more success stories like paper … What if? ‡
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