To make interdisciplinarity work in practice scholars need to get together in order to talk, discuss, and find common ground. CAS has offered a unique opportunity for participants in the Airborne project to do so. During our year at CAS, researchers from the academic disciplines of China studies, anthropology, chemistry, media science, political science and history, from China, US and Norway, have gained new insight into the variety of ways in which a common topic - in this case air pollution in China - can be studied and approached. I am sure this has made us all better researchers.