Every three years, hundreds of scientists from around the world meet for the International Astronomical Unions Bioastronomy Conferenceheld last week on Hamilton Island, along the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Australia. In the course of day-long plenary sessions punctuated by meals filled with intensive discussions, these scientists challenged the trend toward ever-increasing isolation of one discipline from another. For five days, astronomers talked with biologists, and geologists chatted with chemists, all in an attempt to assess the likelihood that life exists beyond Earth.

Theison argued that teaching astrobiology need not be limited to science classes. Six years ago, he created a course at the University of Maryland titled "The Cultural Significance of Astronomy," which includes a fair dose of material related to the possibility of life beyond Earth. "As a returned Peace Corps volunteer," the 53-year-old Theison explains, "I hope to create in my students an anthropological perspective so that they can see the multicultural appeal of science and astronomy."

After finishing his undergraduate degree, Theison spent over three years teaching astronomy as a Peace Corps volunteer at the University of the South Pacific in Sava, Fiji. His visit to Hamilton Island brought strong memories of his time in the Pacific thirty years ago. Since Hamilton Island and Sava are roughly equally far south of the equator, Theison says he has a strong sense of "deja latitude" as he looks up at the southern sky each night. With a touch of sadness, he notes that he has forgotten the Fijian names for the constellations names that he knew so well three decades ago.

Over the years, Theison has continued to seek new forms of life and civilization. Following his time in Fiji and graduate studies at the University of Maryland, he taught in Korea and Japan, finally returning to his alma mater in College Park, Maryland, where he now makes his home.

At times, crossing disciplinary boundaries can be as arduous as bridging cultural divides. In the academic world, traditional definitions of disciplinary boundaries can stand in the way of innovative approaches to teaching. Though Theison had taught a course on life in the universe for University of Marylands astronomy program, when he sought to create a course emphasizing the cultural significance of astronomy and the search for life beyond Earth, his home department wasnt interested. After being told that his course didnt fit because it stressed the humanities over the sciences, Theison turned to his universitys honors program, where his course has resided ever since.

The undergraduate founders of the Astrobiology Society at the University of California at Los Angeles have encountered similar difficulties in promoting cross-disciplinary work. As UCLA alumni Jason Finley and Laurel Methot noted in their poster presentation at the Bioastronomy Conference, "Recruiting and maintaining devoted members has been a challenge, as many students tend to stick to their own individual majors and can not afford time to pursue broader interests." How have they dealt with this bias against interdisciplinary sciences? For the past three years, Methlot and Finley say, they "have countered this with patience and persistent, widespread advertising; over time, those truly inspired by astrobiology have discovered us and have formed a solid membership."

The backgrounds of these two former co-presidents of UCLAs Astrobiology Society are indicative of the range of disciplines the group attracts. Methot majored in microbiology and molecular genetics, while Finleys undergraduate degree is in cognitive science. New officers of the group represent such diverse disciplines as cybernetics, history, economics, geophysics, and computer science. The group also invites participants from disciplines in the humanities, such as philosophy and theology.

One of the aims of the UCLA Astrobiology Society, as emphasized in its mission statement, is to "encourage appreciation for how disciplines are related and demonstrate the importance of interaction/communication between them." To accomplish this, UCLAs Astrobiology Society supports a number of projects, from initiatives to provide career guidance to would-be astrobiologists, to public events that "promote awareness of and involvement in astrobiology in both academic and public realms."

Perhaps the greatest danger that any interdisciplinary endeavor can face is its own success. As astrobiology becomes increasingly recognized as a well-defined area of research, the natural tendency of its practitioners may be to become sufficient unto themselves, eschewing insights from those in other disciplines. Theison, Methot, and Finley remind us that even interdisciplinary scientists can profit from expanded perspectives, and their personal examples remind us of the role that individuals can play in the process.