Wicked problems, such as climate change and poverty, are highly complex, defying traditional problem-solving approaches. How key are electronic communications for providing solutions to these problems by building the global knowledge society and generating new kinds of knowledge? The power of interdisciplinary approaches as facilitated by global communication networks are widely touted by all universities and colleges today. Yet their authenticity and effectiveness are seldom examined critically, except perhaps by those who have trodden the thorny path of interdisciplinary academic collaboration, seeking transdisciplinary and novel outcomes and solutions. A common experience is that even with today's awesome communication technologies, among academics, there are barriers of language and culture. Transcending these barriers remains an ongoing challenge for effective team science, because of the high transaction costs of interdisciplinary interactions, compared with discipline-centric research, in a familiar setting. This session features speakers from the natural and social sciences who have sought to move out of their comfort zones: their labs, field sites, and libraries. The collective experiences of highly diverse, interdisciplinary academic teams that have tackled wicked problems, identifying best practices for interdisciplinary team science, and how global communication technologies have been used in mobilizing science into sound policy solutions will be explored.