[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[March 14, 2000]
[Pages 459-461]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Presenting the National Medals of Science and Technology
March 14, 2000

    The President. Thank you, and welcome to the White House. Thank you, 
Secretary Daley, and thank you, Dr. 
Lane, for your leadership. Secretary 
Shalala; Dr. Colwell; Representative Nick Smith, 
Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, 
thank you for your support of science and technology in the United 
States Congress, across party lines. We welcome Sir Christopher 
Meyer, the British Ambassador to the 
United States, here to be with us today.
    Every year I look forward to this day. I always learn something from 
the work of the honorees. Some of you I know personally; others, I've 
read your books. Some of you, I'm still trying to grasp the implications 
of what it is I'm supposed to understand and don't quite yet. [Laughter] 
But this has been--I must say, one of the great personal joys of being 
President for me has been the opportunity that I've had to be involved 
with people who are pushing the frontiers of science and technology and 
to study subjects that I haven't really thought seriously about since I 
was in my late teens. And I thank you for that.
    When Congress minted America's first coin in 1792, one of the mottos 
was ``Liberty, Parent of Science and Industry.'' Very few of those coins 
survived, but the Smithsonian has lent us one today. I actually have 
one. It's worth $300,000. [Laughter] Not enough to turn the head of a 
25-year-old dot-com executive--[laughter]--but to a President, it's real 
money. [Laughter] And I thought you might like to see it because it 
embodies a commitment that was deep in the consciousness of Thomas 
Jefferson and many of our other Founders. And we could put the same 
inscription on your medals today.
    You have used your freedom to ask and answer some of the greatest 
questions of our time. Each of you has been a brilliant innovator and 
more, breaking down barriers between disciplines, broadening the 
frontiers of knowledge, bringing the products of pure research into 
everyday lives of millions of people, helping to educate the next 
generation of inventors and innovators. For this, America and, indeed, 
the entire world is in your debt.
    It is terribly important that we continue to open the world of 
science to every American. The entire store of human knowledge is now 
doubling every 5 years. In just the 8 years since I first presented 
these medals, think about what has occurred. In 1993, no one's computer 
had a Zip drive or a Pentium chip. There were only 50 sites on the World 
Wide Web--amazing--January of 1993; today, there are about 50 million. 
In 1993, cloning animals was still science fiction, but Dolly the sheep 
would be born just 4 years later. Since 1993, we've sent robots to rove 
on Mars, created prototype cars that get 70 to 80 miles a gallon, 
invented Palm Pilots that put the Internet on our belts and lead to the 
increasing nightmares of a busy life. [Laughter]
    The work that you and your colleagues have done has changed 
everything about our lives. It has brought us to the threshold of a new 
scientific voyage that promises to change everything all over again.
    Perhaps no science today is more compelling than the effort to 
decipher the human genome,

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the string of 3 billion letters that make up our genes. In my lifetime, 
we'll go from knowing almost nothing about how our genes work to 
enlisting genes in the struggle to prevent and cure illness. This will 
be the scientific breakthrough of the century, perhaps of all time. We 
have a profound responsibility to ensure that the life-saving benefits 
of any cutting-edge research are available to all human beings.
    Today, we take a major step in that direction by pledging to lead a 
global effort to make the raw data from DNA sequencing available to 
scientists everywhere to benefit people everywhere. To this end, I am 
pleased to announce a groundbreaking agreement between the United States 
and the United Kingdom, one which I reconfirmed just a few hours ago in 
a conversation with Prime Minister Blair and one 
which brings the distinguished British Ambassador here today.
    This agreement says in the strongest possible terms our genome, the 
book in which all human life is written, belongs to every member of the 
human race. Already the human genome project, funded by the United 
States and the United Kingdom, requires its grant recipients to make the 
sequences they discover publicly available within 24 hours. I urge all 
other nations, scientists, and corporations to adopt this policy and 
honor its spirit. We must ensure that the profits of human genome 
research are measured not in dollars but in the betterment of human 
life. [Applause] Thank you.
    Already, we can isolate genes that cause Parkinson's disease and 
some forms of cancer, as well as a genetic variation that seems to 
protect its carriers from AIDS. Next month the Department of Energy's 
joint genome project will complete DNA sequences for 3 more chromosomes 
whose genes play roles in more than 150 diseases, from leukemia to 
kidney disease to schizophrenia. And those are just the ones we know 
about.
    What we don't know is how these genes affect the process of disease 
and how they might be used to prevent or to cure it. Right now, we are 
Benjamin Franklin with electricity and a kite, not Thomas Edison with a 
usable light bulb.
    As we take the next step and use this information to develop 
therapies and medicines, private companies have a major role. By making 
the raw data publicly available, companies can promote competition and 
innovation and spur the pace of scientific advance. They need incentives 
to throw their top minds into expensive research ahead. They need patent 
protection for their discoveries and the prospect of marketing them 
successfully, and it is in the Government's interest to see that they 
get it.
    But as scientists race to decipher our genetic alphabet, we need to 
think now about the future and see clearly that in science and 
technology, the future lies in openness. We should recognize that access 
to the raw data and responsible use of patents and licensing is the most 
sensible way to build a sustainable market for genetic medicine. Above 
all, we should recognize that this is a fundamental challenge to our 
common humanity and that keeping our genetic code accessible is the 
right thing to do.
    We should also remember that, like the Internet, supercomputers, and 
so many other scientific advances, our ability to read our genetic 
alphabet grew from decades of research that began with Government 
funding. Every American has an investment in unlocking the human genome, 
and all Americans should be proud of their investment in this and other 
frontiers of science.
    I thank all of you for all you have done to build international and 
national support for American investment in science and technology. I am 
grateful that this administration has had the opportunity to increase 
our funding for civilian research every year and that we have requested 
an unprecedented increase this year, in areas from nanotechnology to 
clean energy to space exploration.
    As the new century opens, we are setting out on a new voyage of 
discovery, not just into human cells but into the human heart. We cannot 
know what lies ahead. Each new discovery presents even more new 
questions. What is the purpose of the 97 percent of our genetic makeup 
whose function we don't know? What will we find in the genes left to 
identify? How will we make sure the benefits of genetic research are 
widely and fairly shared? How will we make sure that millions of 
Americans living longer lives also live better and more fulfilling ones?
    Almost 200 years ago, Lewis and Clark set out on a voyage of 
discovery that was planned in this room, where Thomas Jefferson and 
Meriwether Lewis laid out maps on tables, right where you're sitting 
and, though it would be politically incorrect today, tromped around on

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animal skins on the floor. [Laughter] That discovery would not only map 
the contours of our continent but expand forever the frontier of our 
national imagination.
    Before setting out, when Meriwether Lewis was here in the East Room 
with Thomas Jefferson, poring over maps and sharing the lessons in 
natural science, he actually lived on the south side of this room, in 
two small rooms that Thomas Jefferson had constructed in this big room 
for him. I must say today, I wish I could ask all of you to do the same. 
[Laughter] I always feel that when I do this, the wrong person is 
talking. I wish we could hear from all of you today.
    One of the things that I wish I could do a better job of as 
President is sparking the interest and understanding of every single 
citizen in the work you do--of everyone's ability to see how profoundly 
significant what goes on in your labs and in your minds is to their 
future. I do think the American people are coming a long way on that, 
and I tried to talk in the State of the Union in ways that would help. I 
also try to think of little ways to illustrate how you are changing our 
conception of the most basic things: what is big and what is small, what 
is long and what is short. Dr. Lane has actually 
given me a primer of what nanotechnology is, and I can carry on a fairly 
meaningful subject about something that is totally unfathomable to me. 
[Laughter]
    And last year, Neil Armstrong and 
his colleagues came back to the White House to celebrate the 30th 
anniversary of his walk on the Moon. And while he did it, as a part of 
the ceremony, he gave me--just on loan--a vacuum-packed Moon rock which, 
if you see the photographs now of the Oval Office with the two chairs 
and the couches and the table in between, the Moon rock is now visible 
to the world that sees it. And when Members of Congress and others come 
in and get all heated up and angry over some issue, I often call a time 
out, and I say, ``Wait a minute. See that rock? It came off the Moon. 
It's 3.6 billion years old. We're all just passing through. Chill out.'' 
[Laughter] It works every time. [Laughter] So there's a practical gain I 
got from scientific advance. [Laughter]
    There are many other things that have happened that have enriched 
our lives. I have to acknowledge the presence here of my good friend 
Stevie Wonder, who has had a lot to do with 
improving musical technology and is obviously interested in some of the 
scientific developments now going on which might restore sight to people 
and other movements to people who have suffered debilitating paralysis 
and other things. And we thank you, Stevie, for being here today. Thank 
you.
    As our honorees receive their medals, we thank them; all of us thank 
them for the way they have changed the way we view our planet and 
broadened infinitely the ways we gather and store knowledge. You are 
part of an unbroken chain from Lewis and Jefferson to Edison and 
Einstein, from the cotton gin to the space shuttle, from a vaccine for 
polio to the mysteries of DNA. I thank each of you for what you have 
done to change our world and to enrich our minds, our imaginations, and 
our hearts.
    And I think--I learned right before I came in here that it is 
infinitely appropriate that you are receiving these awards on Albert 
Einstein's birthday. So thank you very much. Congratulations.
    Commander, please read the citations.

[At this point, Comdr. Michael M. Gilday, 
USN, Navy Aide to the President, read the citations, and the President 
presented the medals.]

    The President. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I want to just say two 
things in closing. First of all, we saw again today another triumph of 
the scientific method. After two failures, all the other honorees took 
off their glasses on their own. [Laughter] It was truly amazing.
    This has been a wonderful day. I'd like to invite all of you to join 
us in the State Dining Room for a reception in honor of the award 
recipients.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 3:23 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Tony Blair of the 
United Kingdom; Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) 
Aldrin, and Michael Collins; and musician Stevie Wonder.