International Journal of Natural Computing Research, 2(4), 17-30, October-December 2011 17 Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Keywords: Computer Science, Information Processing, Natural Computing, Natural Computing Systems, Natural Science, Transdisciplinarity 1. COMPUTING: YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW The history of computing is much longer than the history of the Computer Science discipline. Whilst computing is related with the representa- tion of numbers and can be traced back to even earlier than mathematical concepts, Computer Science, as we understand it today, is more re- lated with the computer hardware, software and technology. Since Computer Science appeared formally in the 1940s it has been alternating its focus of attention (Denning, 2008): The Grand Challenges in Natural Computing Research: The Quest for a New Science Leandro Nunes de Castro, Natural Computing Laboratory (LCoN), Mackenzie University, Brazil Rafael Silveira Xavier, Natural Computing Laboratory (LCoN), Mackenzie University, Brazil Rodrigo Pasti, Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bio-Inspired Computing (LBiC), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil Renato Dourado Maia, State University of Montes Claros, Brazil Alexandre Szabo, Natural Computing Laboratory (LCoN), Mackenzie University, Brazil Daniel Gomes Ferrari, Natural Computing Laboratory (LCoN), Mackenzie University, Brazil ABSTRACT An important premise of Natural Computing is that some form of computation goes on in Nature, and that computing capability has to be understood, modeled, abstracted, and used for different objectives and in dif- ferent contexts. Therefore, it is necessary to propose a new language capable of describing and allowing the comprehension of natural systems as a union of computing phenomena, bringing an information processing perspective to Nature. To develop this new language and convert Natural Computing into a new science it is imperative to overcome three speciic Grand Challenges in Natural Computing Research: Transforming Natural Computing into a Transdisciplinary Discipline, Unveiling and Harnessing Information Processing in Natural Systems, Engineering Natural Computing Systems. DOI: 10.4018/jncr.2011100102