The Saturday afternoon lecture at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Washington, DC, by the Dalai Lama had been widely anticipated, and had sparked a petition of protest organized by mainly Chinese-origin researchers. In the end, however, there was just one protester standing silently outside the press conference room, holding up a conference tote bag with the words ?Dalai Lama NOT qualify to speak here? inscribed in barely legible ballpoint ink.Instead, thousands of conference attendees gathered to pass through heightened security and then listen as His Holiness stayed safely within the bounds of his expertise, talking about the importance of compassion and ethical consideration in an age of scientific advances. In hesitant English and frequent help from his translator, he emphasized that such ethics do not have to be religious in nature but rather based on universal, ?human values.?Squinting behind square, tinted glasses and adjusting his robe around his shoulder,...
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