9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I've been spending my summers

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the Marine Biological Laboratory in [br]Woods Hole, Massachusetts

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And there, what I've been doing is[br]essentially renting a boat.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What I would like to ask you to do

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is to come on a boat ride with me tonight.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, we ride off from Eel Pond into[br]the Vineyard South,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
right off the coast of Martha's Vineyard,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
equipped with a drone to[br]identify potential spots

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from which to peer into the Atlantic.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Earlier I was going to say

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into the depths of the Atlantic,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but we don't have to go too deep[br]to reach the unknown.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Here, barely two miles away,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from what is arguably the greatest[br]marine biology lab in the world,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we lower a simple plankton net[br]into the water

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and bring up into the surface things[br]that humanity rarely pays attention to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and oftentimes, have never seen before.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Here is one of the organisms[br]that we caught in our net,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this is a jellyfish.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But look closely, living inside this[br]animal is another organism

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that is very likely entirely [br]new to science.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A complete new species.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Or how about this other [br]transparent beauty?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
With a beating heart, [br]asexually growing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on top of its head,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
progeny that will move on to[br]reproduce sexually.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now let me say that again,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this animal is growing asexually,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on top of its head,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
progeny that is going to reproduce[br]sexually in the next generation.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A weird jellyfish, not quite,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this is an ascidian,[br]this is a group of animals

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that now we know we share [br]extensive genomic ancestry with,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and it is perhaps the closest [br]invertebrate species to our own.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Meet your cousin,[br]Thalia democratica

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm pretty sure you didn't [br]save a spot

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in your last family reunion for Thalia.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But, let me tell you,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
these animals are profoundly related to us

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in ways we are just [br]beginning to understand.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Next time you hear anybody [br]derisively telling you

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that this type of research is a[br]simple fishing expedition,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I hope that you remember[br]the trip that we just took.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Today, many biological sciences[br]only see value

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in studying deeper what we [br]already know,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In mapping already discovered continents.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But some of us are much more [br]interested in the unknown,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we want to discover completely [br]new continents,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and gaze at magnificent vistas[br]of ignorance.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We crave the experience of being[br]completely baffled

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by something we have [br]never seen before.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And yes, I agree that there's a lot of [br]ego satisfaction in being able to say

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Hey, I was the first one [br]to discover that."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is not a self-aggrandizing[br]enterprise

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because in this type of [br]discovery research,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if you don't feel like a complete [br]idiot most of the time,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you're just not science-ing[br]hard enough.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Every summer, I bring onto the deck[br]of this little boat of ours,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
more and more things that[br]we know very little about.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Very, very, very little about.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would like to tell you tonight,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a story about life that[br]rarely gets told

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in an environment like this.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
From the vantage point of[br]our 21st biological laboratories,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
our 21st century[br]biological laboratories,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we have began to illuminate[br]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
many mysteries of life with knowledge.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We sensed that after centuries[br]of scientific research,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we're beginning to make significant[br]inroads into understanding

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
some of the most fundamental[br]principles of life.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Our collective optimism is reflected[br]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by the growth of biotechnology[br]across the globe.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Striving to utilize scientific knowledge[br]to cure human diseases,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
things like cancer, aging,[br]degeneretive diseases,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
these are but some of the [br]undesirables we wish to tame.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What I often wonder is,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Why is it that we are[br]having so much trouble

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
trying to solve the [br]problem of cancer?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Is it that we're trying to solve[br]the problem of cancer,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and not trying to[br]understand life?"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Life on this planet [br]shares a common origin.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I can summarize 3.5 billion years[br]of the history of life on this planet

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a single slide.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What you see represented here

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
are all known species,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
representative of all [br]known species of our planet.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in this immensity of life[br]and biodiversity

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we occupy a rather[br]unremarkable position.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Homo sapiens,[br]the last of our kind.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And though I don't really[br]want to disparage

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all the accomplishments[br]of our species,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as much as we wish it to be so,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and often pretend that it is so,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we are not the measure of all things.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We are, however, the measurers[br]of many things.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We relentlessly quantify, [br]analyze and compare,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and some of these are absolutely[br]invaluable and indeed necessary,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but this emphasis today,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on forcing biological research[br]to specialize,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and to produce practical outcomes,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is actually restricting our ability[br]to interrogate life,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to accept only narrow confines[br]and unsatisfying depths.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We are measuring an astonishingly[br]narrow sliver of life,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and hoping that those numbers[br]will save all of our lives.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How narrow, you ask?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well let me give you a number,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric[br]Administration

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
recently estimated, that about 95% [br]of our oceans remain unexplored.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now let that sink in for a second.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
95% of our oceans [br]remain unexplored.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I think it's very safe to say[br]that we don't even know

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
how much about life[br]we do not know.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's no surprise that every [br]week in my field

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we begin to see the addition[br]of more and more new species

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to this amazing tree of life.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This one for example,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
discovered earlier this summer,[br]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
new to science and now occupying[br]its lonely branch in a family tree.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What is even more tragic is that [br]we know about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a bunch of other species of [br]animals out there,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but their biology remains[br]sorely understudied,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm sure some of you have heard[br]about the fact that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a starfish can actually regenerate[br]its arm after it's loss,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but some of you might not know

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that the arm itself can actually[br]regenerate a complete starfish.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There are animals out there [br]that do truly astounding things,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I'm almost willing to bet,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that many of you have never heard[br]of the flatworm

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Schmidtea mediterranea.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This little guy right here does things[br]that essentially just blows my mind.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You can grab one of these animals[br]and cut them into 18 different fragments,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
each and every one of those fragments[br]

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
will go on to regenerate a complete[br]animal in under two weeks.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
18 heads, 18 bodies, 18 mysteries.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For the past decade and a half or so,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I've been trying to figure out how[br]these little dudes do what they do,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
how they pull this body trick off?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But like all good magicians,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they're not really releasing their[br]secrets readily to me.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So here we are, after 20 years[br]of essentially studying these animals,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
genome mapping, chin scratching,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
thousands of amputations and [br]thousands of regenerations,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we still don't fully understand

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
how these animals do[br]what they do.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Each planaria, an ocean[br]unto itself,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
full of unknowns.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now, one of the common characteristics[br]of all these animals

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I have been talking to you about is that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they did not appear to have [br]received the memo,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that they need to behave according[br]to the rules that we have derived

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from a handful of randomly selected[br]animals that currently populate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the vast majority of biomedical [br]laboratories across the world.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Meet our Nobel Prize winners,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
7 species, essentially,[br]that have produced for us

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the bulk of our understanding[br]of biological behavior today.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This little guy right here,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
3 Nobel Prizes in 12 years.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And yet, after all the attention[br]they have garnered

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and all the noise they have generated[br]as well as the lion share of the funding,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
here we are standing in front of the [br]same litany of tractable problems

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and many new challenges.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's because, unfortunately,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
these 7 animals correspond to [br]0.00009% of all of the species

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that inhabit the planet.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, I'm beginning to suspect that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
our specialization is beginning to[br]impede our progress at best,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and at worst, leading us astray.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's because life on this [br]planet and its history

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is the history of rule breakers.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Life started on the face of this [br]planet as single-cell organisms,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
swimming for millions of years[br]in the ocean,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
until one of those creatures [br]decided that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"I'm going to do things [br]differently today,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
today I would like to invent[br]something called Multicellularity,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm going to do this."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'm sure it was not a popular[br]decision at the time,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Laughter)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but somehow it managed to do it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And then, Multicellular organisms[br]began to populate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all these ancestral oceans,[br]and they thrived,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and we have them here today.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Land masses began to merge[br]from the surfaces of the oceans,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and another creature thought,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Hey, that looks like a really nice[br]piece of real estate,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I'd like to move over there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What, are you crazy?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You're going to dessicate out there,[br]nothing can live out of water."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But life found a way,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and there are organisms now[br]of course that live on land.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Once on land, they may have looked up[br]into the sky and said,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Hey, it'd be nice to go to the clouds,[br]I'm going to fly!

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You can't break the law of gravity,[br]there's no way you can fly."

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And yet, nature has invented[br]multiple and independent times

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
ways to fly.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I love to study animals [br]that break the rules

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because every time they break a rule,[br]they invent something new

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that made it possible for us[br]to be able to be here today.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
These animals did not[br]get the memo,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they have broken the rules.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So if we are going to study[br]animals that break the rules,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
shouldn't how we study them[br]also break the rules?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I think that we need to renew[br]our spirit of exploration,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
rather than bringing nature into[br]our laboratories and interrogating them,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we need to bring our science into[br]the majestic laboratory that is nature.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And there, with our modern technological