Is it harder for a mathematician to learn biology or for a
biologist to learn mathematics?  As director of the Institute
for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), a national research
institute based at the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA), and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that
hooks up mathematical scientists with researchers from other
disciplines, I get asked this question all the time. The first
time someone asked me, I wondered: Which would be easier,
explaining a difficult mathematical concept to a biologist, or
trying to get a mathematician to grasp the rudiments of the
polymerase chain reaction? The answer I give now is this: What's
easier than either of these alternatives is for both the
biologist and the mathematician to learn enough of each other's
language to be able to talk to one another.  If I had one piece
of advice to give to young people interested in
interdisciplinary work, it would be this: You don't have to know
everything. The more areas you develop deep insi