0:00:28.095,0:00:30.155 I've been spending my summers 0:00:30.235,0:00:34.828 in the Marine Biological Laboratory in [br]Woods Hole, Massachusetts 0:00:35.148,0:00:39.276 And there, what I've been doing is[br]essentially renting a boat. 0:00:39.406,0:00:41.656 What I would like to do [br]is to ask you 0:00:41.736,0:00:45.466 to come on a boat ride with me tonight. 0:00:46.166,0:00:50.866 So, we ride off from Eel Pond into[br]the Vineyard South, 0:00:50.936,0:00:53.526 right off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, 0:00:53.596,0:00:56.887 equipped with a drone to[br]identify potential spots 0:00:56.967,0:00:59.357 from which to peer into the Atlantic. 0:00:59.417,0:01:00.787 Earlier I was going to say 0:01:00.827,0:01:02.827 into the depths of the Atlantic, 0:01:02.857,0:01:06.539 but we don't have to go too deep[br]to reach the unknown. 0:01:06.709,0:01:09.149 Here, barely two miles away, 0:01:09.239,0:01:13.489 from what is arguably the greatest[br]marine biology lab in the world, 0:01:13.819,0:01:16.919 we lower a simple plankton net[br]into the water 0:01:17.009,0:01:22.246 and bring up into the surface things[br]that humanity rarely pays attention to 0:01:22.366,0:01:25.580 and oftentimes, have never seen before. 0:01:25.690,0:01:28.610 Here is one of the organisms[br]that we caught in our net, 0:01:28.700,0:01:30.210 this is a jellyfish. 0:01:30.280,0:01:34.281 But look closely, living inside this[br]animal is another organism 0:01:34.421,0:01:37.161 that is very likely entirely [br]new to science. 0:01:37.261,0:01:39.191 A complete new species. 0:01:39.521,0:01:42.111 Or how about this other [br]transparent beauty? 0:01:42.211,0:01:45.611 With a beating heart, [br]asexually growing, 0:01:45.701,0:01:47.221 on top of its head, 0:01:47.291,0:01:50.702 progeny that will move on to[br]reproduce sexually. 0:01:50.822,0:01:52.412 Now let me say that again, 0:01:52.442,0:01:54.652 this animal is growing asexually, 0:01:54.682,0:01:56.152 on top of its head, 0:01:56.182,0:02:01.223 progeny that is going to reproduce[br]sexually in the next generation. 0:02:01.453,0:02:04.073 A weird jellyfish, not quite, 0:02:04.213,0:02:07.135 this is an ascidian,[br]this is a group of animals 0:02:07.235,0:02:10.993 that now we know we share [br]extensive genomic ancestry with, 0:02:11.093,0:02:16.534 and it is perhaps the closest [br]invertebrate species to our own. 0:02:16.684,0:02:19.725 Meet your cousin,[br]Thalia democratica 0:02:19.775,0:02:21.315 (Laughter) 0:02:21.435,0:02:23.904 I'm pretty sure you didn't [br]save a spot 0:02:23.974,0:02:26.264 in your last family reunion for Thalia. 0:02:26.894,0:02:28.523 But, let me tell you, 0:02:28.583,0:02:31.954 these animals are profoundly related to us 0:02:32.014,0:02:35.844 in ways we are just [br]beginning to understand. 0:02:36.924,0:02:40.574 Next time you hear anybody [br]derisively telling you 0:02:40.644,0:02:44.494 that this type of research is a[br]simple fishing expedition, 0:02:44.584,0:02:47.906 I hope that you remember[br]the trip that we just took. 0:02:47.986,0:02:51.635 Today, many biological sciences[br]only see value 0:02:51.695,0:02:54.416 in studying deeper what we [br]already know, 0:02:54.556,0:02:57.396 In mapping already discovered continents. 0:02:57.506,0:03:00.707 But some of us are much more [br]interested in the unknown, 0:03:00.757,0:03:05.097 we want to discover completely [br]new continents, 0:03:05.177,0:03:08.817 and gaze at magnificent vistas[br]of ignorance. 0:03:08.977,0:03:12.978 We crave the experience of being[br]completely baffled 0:03:13.068,0:03:15.327 by something we have [br]never seen before. 0:03:15.387,0:03:20.248 And yes, I agree that there's a lot of[br]ego satisfaction in being able to say 0:03:20.308,0:03:23.399 "Hey, I was the first one [br]to discover that." 0:03:23.489,0:03:26.308 This is not a self-aggrandizing[br]enterprise 0:03:26.368,0:03:29.017 because in this type of [br]discovery research, 0:03:29.077,0:03:32.659 if you don't feel like a complete [br]idiot most of the time, 0:03:32.729,0:03:35.210 you're just not science-ing[br]hard enough. 0:03:35.240,0:03:36.750 (Laughter) 0:03:39.250,0:03:44.240 Every summer, I bring onto the deck[br]of this little boat of ours, 0:03:44.300,0:03:47.871 more and more things that[br]we know very little about. 0:03:48.021,0:03:50.901 Very, very, very little about. 0:03:52.261,0:03:54.501 I would like to tell you tonight, 0:03:54.541,0:03:57.292 a story about life that[br]rarely gets told 0:03:57.412,0:04:00.481 in an environment like this. 0:04:00.771,0:04:05.811 From the vantage point of[br]our 21st biological laboratories, 0:04:06.061,0:04:08.772 our 21st century[br]biological laboratories, 0:04:08.842,0:04:10.683 we have began to illuminate[br] 0:04:10.713,0:04:13.415 many mysteries of life with knowledge. 0:04:13.455,0:04:16.894 We sensed that after centuries[br]of scientific research, 0:04:16.964,0:04:20.044 we're beginning to make significant[br]inroads into understanding 0:04:20.074,0:04:23.744 some of the most fundamental[br]principles of life. 0:04:23.814,0:04:26.464 Our collective optimism is reflected[br] 0:04:26.534,0:04:30.588 by the growth of biotechnology[br]across the globe. 0:04:30.898,0:04:36.555 Striving to utilize scientific knowledge[br]to cure human diseases, 0:04:37.225,0:04:41.935 things like cancer, aging,[br]degeneretive diseases, 0:04:42.035,0:04:46.575 these are but some of the [br]undesirables we wish to tame. 0:04:47.165,0:04:48.816 What I often wonder is, 0:04:48.856,0:04:51.786 "Why is it that we are[br]having so much trouble 0:04:51.826,0:04:54.496 trying to solve the [br]problem of cancer? 0:04:54.586,0:04:57.846 Is it that we're trying to solve[br]the problem of cancer, 0:04:57.896,0:05:00.967 and not trying to[br]understand life?" 0:05:01.117,0:05:04.257 Life on this planet [br]shares a common origin. 0:05:04.367,0:05:09.197 I can summarize 3.5 billion years[br]of the history of life on this planet 0:05:09.247,0:05:10.956 in a single slide. 0:05:10.986,0:05:12.798 What you see represented here 0:05:12.828,0:05:14.178 are all known species, 0:05:14.188,0:05:17.528 representative of all [br]known species of our planet. 0:05:17.578,0:05:20.219 in this immensity of life[br]and biodiversity 0:05:20.239,0:05:25.119 we occupy a rather[br]unremarkable position. 0:05:25.219,0:05:29.519 Homo sapiens,[br]the last of our kind. 0:05:29.649,0:05:32.849 And though I don't really[br]want to disparage at all 0:05:32.879,0:05:34.899 the accomplishments[br]of our species, 0:05:34.929,0:05:37.320 as much as we wish it to be so, 0:05:37.350,0:05:39.779 and often pretend that it is so, 0:05:39.809,0:05:43.360 we are not the measure of all things. 0:05:43.510,0:05:47.449 We are, however, the measurers[br]of many things. 0:05:47.509,0:05:51.085 We relentlessly quantify, [br]analyze and compare, 0:05:51.155,0:05:55.641 and some of these are absolutely[br]invaluable and indeed necessary, 0:05:55.781,0:05:58.051 but this emphasis today, 0:05:58.121,0:06:01.952 on forcing biological research[br]to specialize, 0:06:02.022,0:06:04.613 and to produce practical outcomes, 0:06:04.673,0:06:08.429 is actually restricting our ability[br]to interrogate life, 0:06:08.479,0:06:13.173 to accept only narrow confines[br]and unsatisfying depths. 0:06:13.263,0:06:18.253 We are measuring an astonishingly[br]narrow sliver of life, 0:06:18.303,0:06:22.313 and hoping that those numbers[br]will save all of our lives. 0:06:22.543,0:06:24.093 How narrow, you ask? 0:06:24.123,0:06:25.657 Well let me give you a number, 0:06:25.687,0:06:28.694 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric[br]Administration 0:06:28.734,0:06:34.686 recently estimated, that about 95% [br]of our oceans remain unexplored. 0:06:34.836,0:06:37.234 Now let that sink in for a second. 0:06:37.314,0:06:41.935 95% of our oceans [br]remain unexplored. 0:06:42.045,0:06:46.336 I think it's very safe to say[br]that we don't even know 0:06:46.406,0:06:49.767 how much about life[br]we do not know. 0:06:50.107,0:06:52.928 It's no surprise that every [br]week in my field 0:06:52.968,0:06:56.087 we begin to see the addition[br]of more and more new species 0:06:56.157,0:06:58.451 to this amazing tree of life. 0:06:58.531,0:06:59.877 This one for example, 0:06:59.897,0:07:01.837 discovered earlier this summer,[br] 0:07:01.857,0:07:06.487 new to science and now occupying[br]its lonely branch in a family tree. 0:07:06.917,0:07:09.117 What is even more tragic is that [br]we know about 0:07:09.147,0:07:11.859 a bunch of other species of [br]animals out there, 0:07:11.879,0:07:15.560 but their biology remains[br]sorely understudied, 0:07:15.610,0:07:18.279 I'm sure some of you have heard[br]about the fact that 0:07:18.309,0:07:21.879 a starfish can actually regenerate[br]its arm after it's loss, 0:07:21.999,0:07:23.618 but some of you might not know 0:07:23.658,0:07:28.629 that the arm itself can actually[br]regenerate a complete starfish. 0:07:28.679,0:07:33.490 There are animals out there [br]that do truly astounding things, 0:07:33.570,0:07:35.480 and I'm almost willing to bet, 0:07:35.510,0:07:38.773 that many of you have never heard[br]of the flatworm 0:07:38.803,0:07:41.061 Schmidtea mediterranea. 0:07:41.111,0:07:46.870 This little guy right here does things[br]that essentially just blows my mind. 0:07:46.910,0:07:50.751 You can grab one of these animals[br]and cut them into 18 different fragments, 0:07:50.801,0:07:52.891 and each and every one of those fragments 0:07:52.911,0:07:58.331 will go on to regenerate a complete[br]animal in under two weeks. 0:07:58.391,0:08:03.032 18 heads, 18 bodies, 18 mysteries. 0:08:03.072,0:08:05.373 For the past decade and a half or so, 0:08:05.393,0:08:09.243 I've been trying to figure out how[br]these little dudes do what they do, 0:08:09.283,0:08:11.434 how they pull this body trick off? 0:08:11.464,0:08:13.174 But like all good magicians, 0:08:13.194,0:08:15.664 they're not really releasing their[br]secrets readily to me. 0:08:15.694,0:08:17.164 (Laughter) 0:08:17.224,0:08:22.634 So here we are, after 20 years[br]of essentially studying these animals, 0:08:22.764,0:08:25.085 genome mapping, chin scratching, 0:08:25.135,0:08:28.204 thousands of amputations and [br]thousands of regenerations, 0:08:28.254,0:08:29.875 we still don't fully understand 0:08:29.915,0:08:32.525 how these animals do[br]what they do. 0:08:32.605,0:08:36.012 Each planaria, an ocean[br]unto itself, 0:08:36.092,0:08:38.316 full of unknowns. 0:08:38.496,0:08:41.296 Now, one of the common characteristics[br]of all these animals 0:08:41.366,0:08:43.466 I have been talking to you about is that 0:08:43.496,0:08:46.255 they did not appear to have [br]received the memo, 0:08:46.305,0:08:50.096 that they need to behave according[br]to the rules that we have derived 0:08:50.136,0:08:54.347 from a handful of randomly selected[br]animals that currently populate 0:08:54.407,0:08:58.747 the vast majority of biomedical [br]laboratories across the world. 0:08:58.907,0:09:01.127 Meet our Nobel Prize winners, 0:09:01.127,0:09:04.998 7 species, essentially,[br]that have produced for us 0:09:04.998,0:09:09.938 the bulk of our understanding[br]of biological behavior today. 0:09:09.938,0:09:11.758 This little guy right here, 0:09:11.758,0:09:14.948 3 Nobel Prizes in 12 years. 0:09:14.948,0:09:17.412 And yet, after all the attention[br]they have garnered 0:09:17.412,0:09:21.279 and all the noise they have generated[br]as well as the lion share of the funding, 0:09:21.279,0:09:25.580 here we are standing in front of the [br]same litany of tractable problems 0:09:25.580,0:09:27.740 and many new challenges. 0:09:27.740,0:09:29.660 That's because, unfortunately, 0:09:29.660,0:09:37.464 these 7 animals correspond to [br]0.00009% of all of the species 0:09:37.464,0:09:40.750 that inhabit the planet. 0:09:40.750,0:09:43.291 So, I'm beginning to suspect that 0:09:43.291,0:09:47.171 our specialization is beginning to[br]impede our progress at best, 0:09:47.171,0:09:50.962 and at worst, leading us astray. 0:09:50.962,0:09:54.062 That's because life on this [br]planet and its history 0:09:54.062,0:09:56.193 is the history of rule breakers. 0:09:56.193,0:09:59.502 Life started on the face of this [br]planet as single-cell organisms, 0:09:59.502,0:10:01.803 swimming for millions of years[br]in the ocean, 0:10:01.803,0:10:04.223 until one of those creatures [br]decided that, 0:10:04.223,0:10:06.153 "I'm going to do things [br]differently today, 0:10:06.153,0:10:09.243 today I would like to invent[br]something called Multicellularity, 0:10:09.243,0:10:10.253 I'm going to do this." 0:10:10.253,0:10:12.464 I'm sure it was not a popular[br]decision at the time, 0:10:12.464,0:10:13.327 (Laughter) 0:10:13.327,0:10:15.774 but somehow it managed to do it. 0:10:15.774,0:10:18.444 And then, Multicellular organisms[br]began to populate 0:10:18.444,0:10:21.124 all these ancestral oceans,[br]and they thrived, 0:10:21.124,0:10:23.524 and we have them here today. 0:10:23.524,0:10:26.576 Land masses began to merge[br]from the surfaces of the oceans, 0:10:26.576,0:10:27.974 and another creature thought, 0:10:27.974,0:10:30.634 "Hey, that looks like a really nice[br]piece of real estate, 0:10:30.634,0:10:31.993 I'd like to move over there. 0:10:31.993,0:10:33.105 What, are you crazy? 0:10:33.105,0:10:36.175 You're going to dessicate out there,[br]nothing can live out of water." 0:10:36.175,0:10:37.535 But life found a way, 0:10:37.535,0:10:40.106 and there are organisms now[br]of course that live on land. 0:10:40.106,0:10:42.551 Once on land, they may have looked up[br]into the sky and said, 0:10:42.551,0:10:45.127 "Hey, it'd be nice to go to the clouds,[br]I'm going to fly! 0:10:45.127,0:10:48.597 You can't break the law of gravity,[br]there's no way you can fly." 0:10:48.597,0:10:53.187 And yet, nature has invented[br]multiple and independent times 0:10:53.187,0:10:55.127 ways to fly. 0:10:55.127,0:10:57.728 I love to study animals [br]that break the rules 0:10:57.728,0:11:01.121 because every time they break a rule,[br]they invent something new 0:11:01.121,0:11:05.551 that made it possible for us[br]to be able to be here today. 0:11:05.551,0:11:07.668 These animals did not[br]get the memo, 0:11:07.668,0:11:09.298 they have broken the rules. 0:11:09.298,0:11:11.814 So if we are going to study[br]animals that break the rules, 0:11:11.814,0:11:16.058 shouldn't how we study them[br]also break the rules? 0:11:16.058,0:11:20.179 I think that we need to renew[br]our spirit of exploration, 0:11:20.179,0:11:23.940 rather than bringing nature into[br]our laboratories and interrogating them, 0:11:23.940,0:11:28.379 we need to bring our science into[br]the majestic laboratory that is nature. 0:11:28.379,0:11:32.350 And there, with our modern [br]technological armamentarium, 0:11:32.350,0:11:35.445 interrogate every new form of [br]life we find 0:11:35.445,0:11:39.280 and any new biological attribute[br]that we may find. 0:11:39.280,0:11:43.081 We actually need to bring all [br]of our intelligence 0:11:43.081,0:11:45.501 to becoming stupid again. 0:11:45.501,0:11:47.461 Clueless in the immensity,[br] 0:11:47.461,0:11:49.812 in front of the immensity[br]of the unknown. 0:11:49.812,0:11:51.179 Because, after all, 0:11:51.179,0:11:56.151 science is not really about knowledge,[br]science is about ignorance, 0:11:56.151,0:11:57.682 that's what we do. 0:11:57.682,0:11:59.113 So if we're serious about this, 0:11:59.113,0:12:01.279 we are going to have to start[br]seriously supporting 0:12:01.279,0:12:03.663 those institutions that make it[br]possible 0:12:03.663,0:12:05.713 for discovery research to take place. 0:12:05.713,0:12:06.873 Institutions like our own 0:12:06.873,0:12:10.256 Stowers Institute for Medical Research[br]in Kansas City, Missouri, 0:12:10.256,0:12:14.353 or the National Institute of General [br]Medical Science in Bethesda, Maryland, 0:12:14.353,0:12:16.603 and of course our gateway[br]to biodiversity, 0:12:16.603,0:12:20.715 the Marine Biological Laboratory[br]in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 0:12:20.715,0:12:24.965 I have been very fortunate to be able[br]to do some of this training myself, 0:12:24.965,0:12:27.464 and it is a pleasure for me 0:12:27.464,0:12:30.844 to actually grab students out of the[br]confines of their laboratories 0:12:30.844,0:12:32.754 away from their computers and[br]their catalogues, 0:12:32.754,0:12:37.575 and throw them into the world[br]of discovery and exploration. 0:12:37.575,0:12:43.540 It is an immense pleasure,[br]a real pleasure to actually see 0:12:43.540,0:12:48.126 how these bright, young minds'[br]curiosity spreads its wings 0:12:48.126,0:12:52.039 and flies away when faced[br]with the unknown. 0:12:52.039,0:12:55.488 This is how we become[br]real scientists. 0:12:55.488,0:12:58.882 So we need these people[br]to actually go out there 0:12:58.882,0:13:01.979 and ask the better questions [br]that will bring us closer 0:13:01.979,0:13:04.689 to the answers that we seek. 0:13:04.689,0:13:07.869 Antoine de Saint-Exupery[br]actually wrote 0:13:07.869,0:13:09.670 that if you want to build a ship, 0:13:09.670,0:13:11.589 don't drum up people to collect wood 0:13:11.589,0:13:13.788 and don't assign them tasks and work, 0:13:13.788,0:13:18.450 but rather teach them to long for[br]the endless immensity of the sea. 0:13:18.450,0:13:20.241 As a scientist and a teacher, 0:13:20.241,0:13:22.161 I like to paraphrase this to read, 0:13:22.161,0:13:25.232 that we scientists need to[br]teach our students 0:13:25.232,0:13:27.562 to long for the endless immensity[br]of the sea 0:13:27.562,0:13:30.382 that is our ignorance. 0:13:30.382,0:13:34.298 We, Homo sapiens, are the only[br]species we know of 0:13:34.298,0:13:37.353 that is driven to scientific inquiry, 0:13:37.353,0:13:39.623 we, like all other species on this planet 0:13:39.623,0:13:44.694 are inextricably woven into the [br]history of life in this planet. 0:13:44.694,0:13:47.884 I think that I'm a little wrong when[br]I say that life is a mystery, 0:13:47.884,0:13:50.615 because I think that life is[br]actually an open secret 0:13:50.615,0:13:55.221 that has been beckoning our species[br]for millennia to understand it. 0:13:55.221,0:13:56.885 So I ask you, 0:13:56.885,0:14:00.966 are we the best chance that [br]life has to know itself? 0:14:00.966,0:14:04.236 And if so, what the heck[br]are we waiting for? 0:14:04.236,0:14:07.887 We need to do things differently. 0:14:07.887,0:14:09.697 Tonight I'm going to ask you 0:14:09.697,0:14:14.057 to please help us build the [br]greatest discovery research vessel 0:14:14.057,0:14:16.327 in the history of humankind. 0:14:16.327,0:14:17.898 Call your legislators, 0:14:17.898,0:14:20.607 ask them to fund basic discovery research,[br] 0:14:20.607,0:14:23.668 support and give what you can[br]to institutions such as these 0:14:23.668,0:14:26.867 that are dedicated to discovery research, 0:14:26.867,0:14:30.459 and hop on board with us[br]on a grand expedition 0:14:30.459,0:14:34.359 to radically transform our [br]understanding of life. 0:14:34.359,0:14:35.819 And along the way, 0:14:35.819,0:14:40.111 change the way we do[br]biomedical research forever. 0:14:40.111,0:14:41.260 Thank you. 0:14:41.260,0:14:45.651 (Applause)