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>> So this is the opening

lecture in the seminar, which

has been running every semester

since the fall of 2007.

And for those of you who have

come to some of the past ones,

you know that the diversity of

speakers is really sometimes

surprising.

So we have had people who are

national leaders, local

academics, but we have never

ever had someone like Bill

Linton.

And I think his perspective will

be different from that of

everyone that has preceded him.

I am almost completely confident

in making that statement.

So, Bill has a bachelor's degree

in biological sciences from UC

Berkeley, and then he came to do

graduate work in pharmaceutical

chemistry here at UW Madison,

and he has an honorary doctorate

from a Korean university

recognizing his global

engagement in advancing

technology and education in life

sciences.

In 1978, he founded Promega,

which many people may think, oh,

that's our local biotech

company.

Well, it started with one

employee, that was probably

Bill, and now it has 1300

employees, and it's a worldwide

global corporation.

The number of manufacturing

facilities that exist is just

unbelievable.

They exist in Europe, in Asia,

in Australia, in Brazil, and

apparently one is soon to open

in India.

But it's all centered around

life sciences because this is

where Bill came from, and this

is where he stays.

And what makes Bill such an

unusual person, because I think

we all have stereotypes in our

minds, some positive, some not

so positive, when we hear the

word businessman, is that Bill

reaches out to the community and

he tries to advance things that

are going to improve the lives

of everybody from students in

middle schools all the way up to

graduate schools just to general

members of the community.

So one of the things that he did

to make life easier for lots of

people was he established a

daycare center, the Woods Hollow

Day Care Center, right there

near Promega for Promega

employees and members of the

local community.

And this center takes care of

infants all the way to school

aged kids.

And then in 1993, the

Biotechnology Center Institute,

or I always get this wrong.

BTCI I can remember, but what

the letters stand for.

I give it up.

And what this is an educational,

cultural, and scientific

institute.

Probably many of you have been

to the BTCI.

They have an annual forum on

bioethics.

They run classes in the summer

that some of the graduate

students in neuroscience take.

They run classes for middle

school students, oftentimes

middle school students who maybe

have heard of science but have

never considered getting into

it.

So it's a fantastic phenomenon,

the BTCI.

And of late, the forum has

focused on consciousness and the

age-old issue of brain and mind

and what are the relations.

This has been an issue that has

probably challenged humans for

hundreds of years trying to

figure out brain/mind.

How do we integrate these two

things?

And in part, that's why Bill is

going to talk here today.

The title of his talk is right

up there in front of you.

So, Bill.

[APPLAUSE]

>> Thanks very much.

I don't think I've every had

quite an introduction quite like

that.

That kind of took us all over

the globe.

But actually following on that,

I will be saying a few words

related to the start of the

business, but I'll even take us

a little bit before that point

because it's often interesting

to see what were the things that

eventually led a person into

doing what they do.

And I always think that's an

interesting topic to talk about.

Well, good afternoon, and I

would say I'm very impressed

that we have all of these people

here on a Valentine's Day.

And I wish you all great success

and love and all the good things

that come on Valentine's Day.

I also want to thank Ron and

Tara for their wonderful support

and also the invitation just to

be here.

And I've learned a lot about the

neuroscience and public policy

double degree program.

There was a lot I didn't know

about that before.

This really gave me the

opportunity to learn a lot about

that.

It's a very impressive program,

and I had an opportunity to

spend time at lunch with two of

the students.

So that was really great.

I appreciate that very much.

So, what I want to start with is

to share with you three areas of

thought, and then we'll close

the formal lecture.

And then at the end if anybody

would like to stay here and

would like to have a little bit

of questions and answers, I'd be

happy to do that.

It's a little bit more difficult

during the talk to do that just

because of the people who are

viewing this at a remote

distance.

So, first I'm going to talk

about some of my self-reflection

going back as a child, and the

reason I'm doing that is often

when I'm interviewing people for

a job or just kind of

introducing the company, people

often sort of ask, well, why did

you start the company?

What was in your mind at that

time?

And so I'll share with you

perhaps some of the insights

that I've gained as I've thought

about that question.

Second, I'd like to tell you a

little about Promega today.

Ron gave some statistics and a

little bit of insight into that,

but I'll give you some pictures

that show a little about what

the company is today and a

little bit about the special

relationship that we have

between business, the community,

and education that I think

you'll be interested to hear

about.

And finally, probably from my

more scientific origins, I'd

like to share with you some of

my thoughts about the future and

where we're going not only as a

business but also where I think

we can direct some of our

thoughts and attention as far as

society and perhaps what some of

the indicators are as to some

real frontiers that we can think

about in terms of scientific

research and also the role of

business.

So as I look back over 66 years,

which is the time I've been here

on Earth, I always look at some

patterns as I look back,

especially in the early years,

what were some of those early

patterns that I can think about

that might suggest what I would

be doing in future years.

And I use the term this

relentless curiosity and

interest in things, especially

in terms of how things work.

Let's see, I think we can just

postpone that.

So, that's the very young Bill

Linton, and at a very young age,

probably when I was even less

than two but certainly between

two and three, I was watching my

father, who at that time was in

electrical engineering course at

Emery University in Georgia.

I was watching him rebuild

engines.

And he was doing that to earn

money for the family.

And I never really lost my

interest in mechanics and sort

of taking things apart and how

they got put together.

I think there was some early

imprinting that was happening at

that very young age.

And then at the age of six, I

remember having a deep

fascination with outer space.

And I really don't know where

that interest came from, but I

was just fascinated to think

about airships and airplanes and

rocket ships and there was

something about outer space that

really drew me.

But the problem that I knew that

we had at the time was that

there wasn't anything powerful

enough to take anything from the

Earth into outer space.

Overcoming gravity was the big

challenge of the time.

And one night I remember waking

up in the middle of the night,

and I looked at this mirror that

was above a set of drawers in my

room, again, six years old.

As I looked in that mirror, I

could see stars and I could see

galaxies.

And that image of what I saw

still remains with me even now.

And I was so convinced that I

was in outer space looking

through this window that I never

had a doubt that eventually

humans would get into outer

space.

But it was just a very

interesting, we could call it a

dream or a waking dream or

something, but there was

something that really impressed

me as a young child with the

fact that we were going to go to

outer space and we were going to

see things there that we

couldn't see from the Earth.

By the time I turned 11 I spent

a couple summers working for my

dad.

He was a very creative engineer,

but he wasn't particularly good

in business.

What he really taught me through

what he didn't know was what

were the elements that would

eventually make a successful

business.

And it's often not what someone

can tell you directly but often

what someone perhaps doesn't

teach you directly but what you

observe in what they do that can

be most instructive when you're

growing up.

And when I was in sixth grade,

my classmates decided what they

would do is they'd take all

their fellow classmates and they

would decide what they were

going to be when they grew up.

And they decided that I was most

likely to be a mad scientist

when I grew up, and that was in

sixth grade.

I thought that was pretty cool.

I wouldn't mind being a mad

scientist.

So there by the year 1958 in

sixth grade, I had observed a

lot in business, and I already

had a very deep interest in

science.

And then when I was 15, I

attended a National Science

Foundation summer science

program, and that was really

instructive for me.

It had a very deep impression.

It was at the University of

Texas in Austin, and I really

got hooked on biology and

chemistry as a result of that

opportunity that was funded by

the National Science Foundation.

And a little story of what I

would do in the evenings, I

discovered that in the back of

the chemistry building there

were these dumpsters and they

would throw away glassware and

equipment and all kinds of

stuff.

By the end of that summer, I had

a couple of large boxes full of

what later became my first

laboratory which I took home,

and that was the way I first

collected my laboratory.

There was another thing that I

observed being quite young,

which was kind of a phenomenon.

It was that I had an interesting

ability to visualize numbers and

not just in mathematics or not

just in the homework that you

would do.

But someone would come up to me

and say guess how many pennies

I've got in my pocket.

And I would just say 13, and

they would take out their

pennies and count and sure

enough there were 13 pennies.

And it's just kind of, you say

that's kind of coincidence, but

this happened time and time

again in different

circumstances.

And what I discovered as I sort

of observed this and it was sort

of a random thing, but as long

as I didn't have any emotional

outcome, attachment to the

outcome, that this would work.

And it's something that

throughout my life I observed

over and over again.

And, as you might imagine in a

business setting, that can be

rather interesting, and it

turned out to be a rather

valuable thing over the years.

So, again, just another kind of

an observation of something that

maybe is not totally explainable

in terms of the science that we

know today, but there's a lot

that we really don't know about

how the mind works and what the

connections are to the brain.

So that will be kind of where

I'm going with this.

And there's another observation

that I had, and that was that

often I would see something that

later on would become something

that was real.

And I just want to use this

picture as kind of this picture

of reflection.

And I didn't really quite

understand the phenomenon until

I read a book by an author

Atwater that was written in

1996, and the book is called

Future Memory.

And it's about people who in a

way live the future before it's

physically manifested, and they

remember having done that as

though it is an actual memory.

And that experience can be so

real that it's hard to

distinguish that from an actual

memory.

And so often we think, well,

that can't really happen because

we have clear memories of the

past, the future we always view

as being sort of fuzzy.

But time is an interesting

construct, and there really

isn't any physical basis for

time other than the way that we

make sense of things.

There's no formula that says

this is exactly why time should

exist.

And so we work very well in this

construct time, past, present,

and future, and I think there

are ways of working with time or

viewing time or even seeing

things that might be in and out

of time that could be

instructive for us.

Well, I went to undergrad at

Berkeley in 1967 to 1970.

You might imagine what those

years were like for me and were

actually wonderful.

I graduated in 1970.

And then I took off about three

years.

And this was probably one of the

most fascinating journeys that I

ever went on in my life.

I was in a Land Rover, took off

for nine months, and went

through Europe, northern Africa,

down through the Sahara Desert.

It took 28 days to cross the

desert and found myself

eventually in Liberia.

Sold the Land Rover to a diamond

mine, got enough money to pay

for a freighter ticket to get

back to the United States.

And I just hope if anybody here

has some inkling or an idea that

it'd be great to take a year

off, by all means do it.

The things that you can run

across and the experiences you

can have can be invaluable.

I couldn't imagine today even

contemplating doing something

like that.

But you never know when your

mind is open and you have an

opportunity to take some time

off, wonderful things can

happen.

So in 1976 after work that I did

in pharmaceutical chemistry, and

I worked for three years as a

development scientist at

Scientific Protein Labs in

Waunakee.

I was talking with some people

at the university here in

McArdle Laboratories, and they

said we really are tired, as

graduate students, of making

these enzymes that are used to

cut and splice DNA.

And so I kind of took that on as

a challenge, and I thought, you

know, I'm pretty good with the

lab, I'm pretty good proteins,

and let's see what I can do with

that.

So in 1978, with a lot of help

from a lot of people here at the

university, I started Promega.

I was 31 years old at the time.

And what I was doing was making

a group of products that the

students didn't want to make

anymore, they were in short

supply, it was difficult to get

some of these, and I was kind of

a local supplier.

So, again, it was kind of this

curiosity about a new field and

what might be possible that sort

of led me in that direction.

And within a couple years I was

trying to work also in another

laboratory in Holland.

In this case, this is in Leiden,

Holland, and we were growing up

some blue-green algae to make

one of the restriction enzymes.

And it was a rather challenging

situation there because what I

discovered was that the culture

in Holland wasn't necessarily

amendable to what you need to do

if you're going to be making

some of these enzymes.

So, for example, they would come

in at exact time in the morning.

At 11:45 you had to take off and

spend about an hour at lunch.

4:45 you're out the door, and if

it's a Friday, you don't come

back until Monday.

And as any of you know if you've

been trying to isolate and

purify an enzyme, there are

certain points where you just

can't drop it and then come back

two days later and hope that

it's still surviving.

So I tried to do that for about

a year and a half and kind of

gave up on that idea.

But it was a fun experience to

try that.

I also wanted to give credit to

some of the people that I

mentioned earlier but many, many

people at the university that

were really helpful.

There's a young man right here

that I think I might see in the

audience, Jim Dahlberg, Janet

Mertz, I think this is

Fred Blattner, Waclaw Szybalski.

It was in Howard Temin's lab

that I got the first idea from

one of the graduate students to

make some of these products.

But again, these are all people

at the University of Wisconsin,

and this is really a large part

of the reason why Promega got

established here was through

some of this incredible help

that I had in methods, in

bacterial cultures, and all the

methods that I had help with.

DNA reference samples and so

forth.

So it was really a great place

to start the business.

So if we fast forward now from

those very early days to what

the company looks like today, we

really celebrated last year the

35th year of the company.

And just a few highlights.

This is not really a business

lecture.

It's really going into a couple

different directions here.

But in 2013 we had revenues of

just over $350 million,

1300 employees, 15 countries,

and about 2700 products which

span technologies from genomics

all the way to cell biology and

proteomics and many of the other

techniques involved in life

science and between.

If you haven't been to our

campus recently, I'd be

delighted to host you there.

We have a new building that just

opened in October.

It's just under 300,000 square

feet.

We called the Richard P Feynman

Center after a Nobel Prize

winning physicist Richard

Feynman.

He was a true renaissance man,

brilliant in science but also

really gifted in the arts,

culture, and he had a great

sense of humor.

So he wasn't a life scientist,

but I think he represents much

of what we aspire to when we

think about what we can do as

individuals and also the kinds

of people that we hope to bring

into the company.

This building expands our

capability, particularly in

molecular diagnostics, and it's

referred to as a CGMP, current

good manufacturing practices

facility.

But size and growth, while

they're important, they're not

the most important factors, and

I'd like to spend just a couple

of minutes on what makes Promega

different.

What are some of the things that

we've aspired to do as an

organization that I hope goes

beyond just some of the normal

values that you often find in

business.

I think just like a person, an

organization you can view as

something that's living.

It has something like a mind or

maybe a brain.

I think it's got a body.

And let's imagine that it has

soul and spirit too.

So let's maybe explore these

ideas just for a moment.

This slide, if you look in the

middle, talks about Promega in

the year 2078.

And one of the things that we've

been talking about in the last

few years is how to build a

company and how to set a

foundation for a business that

can last a hundred years.

And 2078, of course, would be

the anniversary of Promega at

that point in time.

So to kind of follow this idea

of the mind and the body and the

spirit in business, the body

might be considered to be the

products and the services that

we offer, the mind is our plan

for how we want to expand the

business technology

developments, and the generation

of resources which would be

positive cash flow to finance

the things that we're going to

be building in the future.

But the soul and the spirit is

really why we do this.

Being a private company,

we don't have to report out

earnings to Wall Street.

We're not working for venture

capitalists who might expect a

high rate of return in three to

five years And fortunately our

stage of maturation after 35

years is such that we're allowed

to view our present and our

future from a different

perspective than just survival

and early adolescence of a new

business.

And that's why we're now looking

at what are the things that we

want to focus on as a company

that will enable us to survive

until the year 2078 and possibly

beyond that.

So our long range goals include

contributions to society, the

community, exploring the

frontiers of course of science,

for better technologies,

medicines, better tools for

doing basic and applied

research, and also creating a

unique environment for our

employees and our business

partners.

Now, we've borrowed also an

image that you normally see when

you take a course in psychology.

And this is based on Abraham

Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

And one of the reasons that I

like to use Maslow is that he

was a student, and in fact I

think he got his PhD here at the

University of Wisconsin.

Came from New York.

He didn't get along well with

his parents, and so if you don't

get along well with your

parents, where do you go?

You go to Madison to gain some

degree of freedom.

And he came here and he got

married here and it was while he

was here that he began to

develop this idea of the human

potential movement that became

really embedded within

psychology.

And the idea was at the very

base of our existence we meet

our physical needs.

Food, clothing, shelter, all the

things that enable us to live

day to day.

And as we establish that, we can

then turn our attention to other

kinds of things.

If you don't have enough food or

you're worrying about where

you're going to live, you're not

going to spend a lot of time

being concerned about these

other aspects of this hierarchy.

But once you do have that

established, then you can think

about things like your safety

and security and pension plans

or other kinds of things that

might help you in the future.

Love and belonging become

important in this hierarchy.

And then esteem, your standing

in the community, once these

other things are established.

And then he identified something

that he said once these other

things are fulfilled, each

person has an opportunity to go

beyond that and to say, what is

it that I'm really here for?

And what can I do that will make

my life meaningful beyond just

the things that might be

normally accepted in the

community or normally accepted

within our business practices?

What more is there in life?

And he called that

self-actualization.

And so we kind of looked at this

and we said this really has some

interesting characteristics to

it, and perhaps there might be

something that we can learn from

this from the business

standpoint as well.

But to take a little bit of a

deeper dive into this aspect of

these levels of these layers of

human development, we began to

talk more intentionally within

the company about some other

things that had to do with other

levels of human development

which are not meant to be so

much hierarchical as they are

opportunities for further growth

individually.

So the very base is perhaps the

characteristic of an individual

that might be called impulsive

And this is where a person is

just acting to meet their

survival needs.

A little bit like that very base

in Maslow's hierarchy.

And then next would be more

opportunistic.

They might work or manipulate

other people for their own

self-gain.

As they grow in their awareness

and their ability to better

interact with others, you might

have a diplomat, people who are

very good at working with others

and are better able to get to a

certain point through peaceful

means and not through so much

manipulation.

And then the expert.

And, of course, a lot of our

universities, a lot of our

businesses, we look for experts.

So it's not as though each of

these levels is necessarily

negative or overly positive, but

in fact it's often the

combination of these that enable

us to get the right mix of

people for the right kinds of

jobs.

The achiever, the person who

sets goals, motivates, looks for

feedback because they're looking

for ways in which they continue

to self-improve themselves.

Many individualists, and this is

often the person then who's

ready to take the next step and

leaps to the second tier, which

then gets into the realm of

strategy.

Being able to see things from

new perspectives.

And it uses what they've been

able to accomplish and perhaps

the power that they've created

through what they're doing and

who they are to do positive

things, to help transform others

or their work environment or

their university environment.

Then the alchemist, of course

the person who can transmute.

They work in deep processes.

They're willing to accept

mystery.

And then at the top, the

unitive, the person who acts

simply, they pass through deep

complexity, and they've gone to

the other side of more

simplicity.

They lead by who they are and

not so much by saying I'm the

CEO or I'm the president of this

or the head of that.

And then this just kind of gives

a spread of where this often

happens within the population.

At the bottom you really don't

find a lot of leaders.

I say at the bottom, but at this

core.

At the impulsive opportunistic

diplomat, only a few leaders

then.

Then the expert achiever

individualist, we see many more

of our leaders there.

Again, whether it's government

institutions, academic

institutions, or business.

And then going to this second

tier, often also reflects and

individual's ability to exhibit

more wisdom and compassion in

how they interact with others.

And to be able to do that in a

way that, they bring peace both

internally and externally to

their environment.

But this idea of wisdom and

compassion are some of the two

attributes that enable a person

to go to the strategic alchemist

and the unitive levels.

So we're working on these

because we think some of these

attributes are very fundamental

to understanding more of who we

are.

And these are important

characteristics that as we learn

more about these, as we learn

where we fit into these models,

help us in our dialog with our

coworkers, with the people that

we may have an opportunity to

provide guidance to and

leadership with.

I like this circle because what

this says is this is not a

top-down hierarchy.

That there is a movement to it,

but that it's not that any one

is above somebody else.

It's different but there is also

a progression going from the

impulsive to the

transformational individual.

So we're thinking quite a bit

about this.

We're bringing this into

practice, and this becomes a

part of our dialog again in our

daily business.

So going back for a moment to

the hierarchy and then taking

the individual hierarchy into

the company, let's look at how

that might translate into

business terms.

So at the very bottom is, just

like food, clothing, and shelter

for business, you need to have

cash flow.

You want to create value.

You have to bring something

that's meaningful and you have

find people who are willing to

pay for it.

So that's basic business

principles.

And once you do that

successfully, then you can

expand the business, as we've

done both geographically and

also in our new facilities that

we build in various parts of the

world.

We can differentiate the company

through the services we offer

employees, through the products

that we bring to the market,

technologies we deploy.

Operational excellence refers to

increasing levels of quality and

compliance.

And then finally we reach this

top pinnacle, and then the

question is, what is the real

purpose why we're doing all

this?

Is it just to give people jobs?

Is it just to give return to

shareholders?

What is it really all about?

Sure we get a paycheck every two

weeks, but at the end of the

day, what are we doing it for?

And so we've given this a lot of

thought, and we said wouldn't it

be an amazing thing if we could

take this idea of purpose, this

idea of transformation of a

business and overlay that with

this idea of self-actualization

for individuals.

And to say that the real purpose

of the organization is to help

and support the ability of each

individual to know more about

themselves, to be able to

self-actualize their own

development, and that's the real

purpose of the organization.

And the power of that is that

each person then working there

realizes that the organization

exists with them.

It's not about a parent

organization that just takes the

cash out of the company.

It's not about other purely

financial gain or objectives,

but it really has to do with

themselves personally and what

is most deep and meaningful to

them, which is what is their

purpose in realizing that the

purpose of the organization is

to help them discover that and

to take the steps that will help

them transform into that

direction.

And so there's this interesting

purpose then that we can depict

by kind of this little triangle

circle.

The value individually to the

person, the value to the

customers that result when

people are motivated and

energized by what they're doing

every day, and then what we can

bring to the community.

Many of the things that Ron

mentioned, our daycare center,

the nonprofit educational and

science endeavors, and many of

the other things that we bring

and support within the

community.

That community is a global

community.

So then I want to take just a

little bit of time now and talk

about when we think about the

future what are some

possibilities for where science

is going, what are some

possibilities about what we're

doing as a business thinking out

into the future.

And when we celebrate a hundred

years in the year 2078, and I

hope some of you are here to

help us celebrate, I probably

won't be, but what can we think

about or what are some of the

things that we can contemplate,

especially if we were to kind of

send a message out into the

future to the people who will be

talking about that 100-year

celebration.

What are some of the ideas we'd

like to convey to them.

Well, interestingly, when we try

to forecast the future, it's a

very, very difficult thing to

do, particularly for people who

are involved in technology and

companies that are built around

technology and that includes a

life science company.

In 1900 people in France

commissioned some artists to try

to imagine what the world was

going to look like in the year

2000.

And what you'll see are ideas or

problems or opportunities that

they had an interest in trying

to solve, but what makes these

quite funny is the fact that

they were using the technology

of 1900 to solve problems that

they envisioned would be there

in the year 2000.

And so let's take a look at how

they envisioned solving some of

these problems.

Who would have guessed that they

would be thinking about video

conferencing in the year 1900,

but that's what this picture is

depicting.

Someone talking into a

microphone and some strange

device that's broadcasting a

picture and there's this woman

talking back to the guy.

It's not clear how she sees him.

But here you see the technology

existing in the year 1900 trying

to solve this interesting

problem of video conferencing.

And of course, if you're going

to get news every day, you sit

back, light a cigarette, and

you've been delivered, maybe

it's a home delivery, a little

cylinder and you put it on your

gramophone and you play the news

of the day.

So that's how you're going to

get the news.

And transportation, you want to

get quickly from point A to

point B.

Well, all you need to do is

train a whale, attach some kind

of an interesting submarine to

it, and you have that guy on top

who's kind of steering the whale

and the guy in back with this

rudder, and that's how you're

going to get to your next

vacation in the Caribbean.

Now remember that at that time,

lighter than air travel was just

travel in the air.

Any kind of way to travel in the

air is an imagination.

People were coming up with all

kinds of inventions, but that

problem had not been solved.

But they envisioned that if you

want to be putting out a fire in

a highrise, then you just strap

on your wings and there you go.

You can even rescue the mom with

the little baby up on the 50th

floor of the highrise.

And high speed rail.

We still envision that today.

It just looks a little bit

different.

So, again, trying to apply

today's technologies to what we

envision the world is going to

look in the year 2078 is an

extraordinarily difficult thing

to do.

I imagine that probably

two-thirds of the people here

have iPhones, iPads.

None of those devices existed

12 years ago, 10 years ago,

15 years ago.

So our life has been transformed

in a very short amount of time

by inventions that now we think

are almost indispensable.

Just imagine what that's going

to be like in another 65 years.

It's very hard to imagine.

But the problems or the

opportunities or the things that

we can say are basic to what we

want to solve, medical problems,

labor saving, transportation,

communication, those are the

things that we'll still be

trying to solve but using

different technological means.

Then getting back to really a

topic I think that is common to

just about everybody here, it's

neuroscience.

And the biology, the chemistry

of the brain, the study of what

is the meaning of mind, what is

consciousness, and how does this

affect our health, our healing,

and in general our capabilities.

And I think this is probably the

greatest frontier ahead of us in

life science, in our

communities, and in society.

And so as I think about the

future, this is kind of what

I envision is going to be

consuming much of our research

in the future.

We know we have about roughly

100 billion neurons, and these

all together create about 100

trillion neuronal connections.

There was an interesting article

that just came out in Scientific

American about the brain, and

just fascinating imaging of what

they're now able to pick up and

the communication pathways that

are just extraordinarily

intricate.

We have yet to develop the tools

to understand what's really

happening, and we still have not

a clue as to how we can take an

idea and hold that idea or take

that idea and say a few words

and try to communicate what that

idea means.

How does all that happen?

It's still very much a mystery.

So, most of you have studied

some of these pathways, so when

we think of some of the things

that are exhibited in our minds,

exhibited in the brain, we have

all these various receptors and

various systems that all

together result in behavior,

human behavior.

And just taking a simple outcome

of some of these very complex

behaviors that are exhibited

through how we think and how our

brain works, just taking one

example which would be, let's

say, stress.

And all the things that are

affected in our human systems as

a result of stress that can

occur to us in anything, through

the environment, through our

work, through relationships.

And there's a list of two pages

of all the things that can

result in terms of symptoms of

the body and of the mind as a

result of that chest pain,

fatigue, stomach upsets, sleep

problems, anxiety, restlessness.

It's just a very, very long

list.

And yet, interestingly, stress

is not necessarily solved by

addressing the symptoms.

It's solved by how we think

about and how we react to what

comes into our lives.

And it's really that study of

consciousness and the study of

how we interpret the things that

are coming in, and that

interesting interpretation of

reality that can result in

changes in our state and give us

better health outcomes the more

we begin to recognize these

intricate connections between

how we're thinking, how we

respond to our environment, and

then how that affects us

throughout our day and

throughout every part of our

body.

And, finally, I just want to say

that because I view the frontier

of the mind, the frontier of the

brain, as being one of the

largest challenges in life

science, I also think that the

more we learn about that, the

more the possibilities are for

how we can change our view of

our society, change our view of

our relationship to the world.

I kind of like this picture

because it shows the infinite

possibilities that exist in the

human mind.

I think we're starting to unlock

some of the potential within the

mind.

The Doors of Perception was a

book written by Aldous Huxley

many years ago.

And it just begins to suggest

that there is incredible

possibility, almost infinite

possibility that is still in a

way locked up because we don't

understand much of how the brain

works.

But our community practices and

our system of values as we have

them today are just not

sustainable for the planet.

And we all inherently know that,

that the way that we practice

our values, our consumptive

philosophies as far as how we

accumulate things.

If we look at the finite

resources on the planet, we have

to change how we view this

relationship that we have in our

communities and ourselves to the

planet itself.

An ancient African proverb says

that we have borrowed the future

from our children instead of

inheriting it from our

ancestors.

And, again, that's this shift in

perception.

How we view the planet, how we

view our relationship within our

communities.

And what will the people of a

hundred years from now think

about our stewardship and how we

viewed the planet and its

resources?

And how will they judge our

wisdom as we make decisions,

both individually and

collectively every day?

So we know that sustainable

solutions to problems arise from

perspectives that lie outside

the dimensions from which the

problem arose.

That was one of Einstein's

favorite sayings.

You can't solve a problem in

looking at it from the same

plane, from the same dimension

that the problem arose.

You have to look at it from a

different perspective, and we

have to learn how to create

these different perspectives,

how to see things differently.

And I kind of like this because

gateways suggest a transition

from one perspective to another

perspective.

And that's our challenge and

that's what we need to do.

Every aspect of learning and

every aspect of how we conduct

business, particularly in our

aspects of how we interact with

one another and how we interact

with every creature and every

living thing on the planet and

the natural resources on the

planet.

We have to learn how to bridge

the gulf between our thinking

and our beliefs and the wisdom

that is inherent in nature every

where we look.

It's just opening eyes.

It's seeing things in a new way.

And I think there can be a new

partnership between humans on

the planet and every element of

nature.

I think it's time that we open

some of these doors, that we go

through the gateway and look for

the answers that really are all

around us.

They are here.

The answers are here, and we

just have to see things in a

different way to be able to see

these answers.

As the gifted and autistic

Temple Grandin observed, this is

another doorway and we're all

standing at that threshold, and

I'm going to suggest this is now

the time to walk through

and see things through new eyes.

Thank you very much.

[APPLAUSE]