0:00:28.615,0:00:30.235 I've been spending my summers 0:00:30.235,0:00:35.298 in the Marine Biological Laboratory in [br]Woods Hole, Massachusetts 0:00:35.298,0:00:39.496 And there, what I've been doing is[br]essentially renting a boat. 0:00:39.496,0:00:41.126 What I would like to ask you to do 0:00:41.126,0:00:43.886 is to come on a boat ride with me tonight. 0:00:43.886,0:00:51.116 So, we ride off from Eel Pond into[br]the Vineyard South, 0:00:51.116,0:00:53.666 right off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, 0:00:53.666,0:00:57.107 equipped with a drone to[br]identify potential spots 0:00:57.107,0:00:59.497 from which to peer into the Atlantic. 0:00:59.497,0:01:00.827 Earlier I was going to say 0:01:00.827,0:01:02.877 into the depths of the Atlantic, 0:01:02.877,0:01:06.709 but we don't have to go too deep[br]to reach the unknown. 0:01:06.709,0:01:09.239 Here, barely two miles away, 0:01:09.239,0:01:13.819 from what is arguably the greatest[br]marine biology lab in the world, 0:01:13.819,0:01:17.009 we lower a simple plankton net[br]into the water 0:01:17.009,0:01:22.366 and bring up into the surface things[br]that humanity rarely pays attention to 0:01:22.366,0:01:25.690 and oftentimes, have never seen before. 0:01:25.690,0:01:28.700 Here is one of the organisms[br]that we caught in our net, 0:01:28.700,0:01:30.370 this is a jellyfish. 0:01:30.370,0:01:34.551 But look closely, living inside this[br]animal is another organism 0:01:34.551,0:01:37.301 that is very likely entirely [br]new to science. 0:01:37.301,0:01:39.521 A complete new species. 0:01:39.521,0:01:42.211 Or how about this other [br]transparent beauty? 0:01:42.211,0:01:45.701 With a beating heart, [br]asexually growing, 0:01:45.701,0:01:47.291 on top of its head, 0:01:47.291,0:01:50.902 progeny that will move on to[br]reproduce sexually. 0:01:50.902,0:01:52.442 Now let me say that again, 0:01:52.442,0:01:54.682 this animal is growing asexually, 0:01:54.682,0:01:56.182 on top of its head, 0:01:56.182,0:02:01.453 progeny that is going to reproduce[br]sexually in the next generation. 0:02:01.453,0:02:04.213 A weird jellyfish, not quite, 0:02:04.213,0:02:07.235 this is an ascidian,[br]this is a group of animals 0:02:07.235,0:02:11.093 that now we know we share [br]extensive genomic ancestry with, 0:02:11.093,0:02:16.684 and it is perhaps the closest [br]invertebrate species to our own. 0:02:16.684,0:02:18.585 Meet your cousin,[br]Thalia democratica 0:02:18.585,0:02:21.585 (Laughter) 0:02:21.585,0:02:24.094 I'm pretty sure you didn't [br]save a spot 0:02:24.094,0:02:26.264 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 [br]technological armamentarium, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 interrogate every new form of [br]life we find 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and any new biological attribute[br]that we may find. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We actually need to bring all [br]of our intelligence 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to becoming stupid again. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Clueless in the immensity,[br] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in front of the immensity[br]of the unknown. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because, after all, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 science is not really about knowledge,[br]science is about ignorance, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that's what we do. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So if we're serious about this, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we are going to have to start[br]seriously supporting 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 those institutions that make it[br]possible 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for discovery research to take place. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Institutions like our own 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Stowers Institute for Medical Research[br]in Kansas City, Missouri, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or the National Institute of General [br]Medical Science in Bethesda, Maryland, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and of course our gateway[br]to biodiversity, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Marine Biological Laboratory[br]in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I have been very fortunate to be able[br]to do some of this training myself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and it is a pleasure for me 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to actually grab students out of the[br]confines of their laboratories 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 away from their computers and[br]their catalogues, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and throw them into the world[br]of discovery and exploration. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It is an immense pleasure,[br]a real pleasure to actually see 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 how these bright, young minds'[br]curiosity spreads its wings 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and flies away when faced[br]with the unknown. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is how we become[br]real scientists. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we need these people[br]to actually go out there 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and ask the better questions [br]that will bring us closer 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to the answers that we seek. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Antoine de Saint-Exupery[br]actually wrote 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that if you want to build a ship, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 don't drum up people to collect wood 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and don't assign them tasks and work, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but rather teach them to long for[br]the endless immensity of the sea. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 As a scientist and a teacher, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I like to paraphrase this to read, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we scientists need to[br]teach our students 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to long for the endless immensity[br]of the sea 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that is our ignorance. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We, Homo sapiens, are the only[br]species we know of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that is driven to scientific inquiry, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we, like all other species on this planet 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are inextricably woven into the [br]history of life in this planet. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think that I'm a little wrong when[br]I say that life is a mystery, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because I think that life is[br]actually an open secret 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that has been begging our species[br]for millennia to understand it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I ask you, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are we the best chance that [br]life has to know itself? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if so, what the heck[br]are we waiting for? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We need to do things differently. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Tonight I'm going to ask you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to please help us build the [br]greatest discovery research vessel 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the history of humankind. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Call your legislators, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 ask them to fund basic discovery research,[br] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 support and give what you can[br]to institutions such as these 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that are dedicated to discovery research, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and hop on board with us[br]on a grand expedition 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to radically transform our [br]understanding of life. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And along the way, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 change the way we do[br]biomedical research forever. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Thank you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Applause)