At the evidentiary level, there is the new molecular information. It's not philosophically profound, but pragmatically it's a very important addition. When you can compare genes, that is a huge power, and it links back to cladistics. Combining the two approaches made this explosive. Missouri Botanical Garden is the oldest of its kind in the United States.
Biotechnology is another important focus of the congress.
You and the Missouri Botanical Garden were instrumental in forming the new Danforth Plant Science Center here in St. Louis. Monsanto supports the garden financially, as they always have, even though we don't do biotech work other than bioprospecting. I insisted that we also include the University of Missouri in Columbia. The heads of the various institutions would be on the board of directors of the center but would have no direct say in research projects. The center would drive its own programs and have huge flexibility in terms of gathering a group of cutting-edge plant scientists in an independent institution.