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Lessons learned at the biology–geology interface

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 1, pages 135–136 (2020)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 09 March 2020

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Geoscience is increasingly transdisciplinary, requiring researchers from many different scientific backgrounds to work together. Jayme Feyhl-Buska, a biologist pursuing a doctoral degree in an Earth Science department, highlights lessons that she learned on the cusp of the two fields, and urges collaborators to convey lines of thinking and define terminology upfront.

Geologists and biologists have many common questions — what exists on or in the Earth, how did it get here, and how does it work? Before I started a PhD program in an Earth Science department, I obtained an undergraduate degree in biology and worked in various microbiology and ecology labs. During this time, I considered geology to be a wholly equations-driven science, akin to math or physics, quite unlike the often qualitative and temperamental field of biology. Although the hard numbers aspect of geology does exist, I was shocked to discover how many similarities unite biology and geology — and how many differences divide them. Here, I provide a few of my lessons learned while transitioning from a biologist to an Earth scientist, and ‘translate’ for anyone collaborating across the life–rock aisle.

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  • 09 March 2020

    An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

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  1. Dept of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Jayme Feyhl-Buska

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  1. Jayme Feyhl-Buska
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Correspondence to Jayme Feyhl-Buska.

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Feyhl-Buska, J. Lessons learned at the biology–geology interface. Nat Rev Earth Environ 1, 135–136 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-0034-1

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