Robert (Bob) Barnhill came to ASU in 1986 as Chair of the Computer Science Department and left in 1997 as the Vice President for Research. The interview addresses a number of topics including the beginnings of Computer Graphics, moving the Computer Science Department to a more research-oriented effort, achieving Research 1 status, working with the University of Arizona to develop a new statewide Intellectual Property template, dodging the Unabomber and playing soccer. Common themes throughout the interview include Bob’s success at getting groups of people to actually do something other than just meet and the importance of a strategic plan.

In his essay Evolution and Tinkering, published in
Science in 1977, Francois Jacob argued that a common analogy
between the process of evolution by natural selection and the
methods of engineering is problematic. Instead, he proposed to
describe the process of evolution with the concept of
bricolage (tinkering). In this essay, Jacob did not deny the
importance of the mechanism of natural selection in shaping complex
adaptations. Instead, he maintained that the cumulative effects of
history on the evolution of life, made evident by molecular data,
provides an alternative account of the patterns depicting the
history of life on earth. Jacob's essay contributed to
genetic research in the late twentieth century that emphasized
certain types of topics in evolutionary and developmental biology,
such as genetic regulation, gene duplication events, and the genetic
program of embryonic development. It also proposed why, in future
research, biologists should expect to discover an underlying
similarity in the molecular structure of genomes, and that they
should expect to find many imperfections in evolutionary history
despite the influence of natural selection.