On July 7–8, 2007, the William A. Haseltine Foundation for Medical Sciences and the Arts sponsored a series of high-concept talks about neuroscience for this prestigious gathering. Featuring some of the top scientists in the field, a conference track titled "Your Brain and Yourself" drew large audiences, and for these intelligent but mostly nonscientific attendees, the researchers stepped back from their usual data-driven styles to discuss neuroscience's larger challenges.

Much of the current boom in neuroscience, which conference organizer Eric Haseltine referred to as the field's new "golden age," has been driven by the development of new technologies for peering inside working brains. What we're seeing is at once fascinating, mysterious, and in some cases, more than a little bit frightening. Besides opening the door to potentially revolutionary diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, the new technology could cause a wholesale re-evaluation of some of our most fundamental social beliefs.