and even today, the hughes name and fortune live on in the howard hughes medical institute. give us some of the hughes greatest hits, some of the great discoveries. >> the discovery of the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy, and a noninvasive test for colon cancer. [ticking] >> elissa montanti is unlike almost anyone we've ever met. with the help of some very charitable american doctors, she's changed the lives of more than 100 kids like this one, a boy from iraq who needed an arm, a leg, and an eye. >> i love you, wa'ad. >> you'll follow his transformation... >> look at him. he looks beautiful. >> which is a wonder to watch. [ticking] >> welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. i'm morley safer. in this edition, we look at the serious business of philanthropy. bill and melinda gates take us inside their foundation, we examine the unintended legacy of howard hughes, and meet a staten island woman helping children maimed by war. we begin with bill and melinda gates. with their plan to give away $60 billion, they're the most generous philanthropists in the world

the only trustee was howard hughes. >> this is how this medical institute started? ht. >> when the irs challenged the institute, it did begin to fund some research, but for many years, as hughes retreated further into isolation and illness, much more money went to him than to science. i have a vision of him living at the top of a hotel in las vegas, and no one could get in to see him. >> that is absolutely true. he did black out the windows. he did live by himself. he didn't even walk to the bathroom. he was carried to the bathroom. >> well, i heard he didn't even bathe. >> he didn't dress, let alone bathe. the fact is, the man had enough money that if he didn't want to get up out of bed, he didn't. and in fact, he didn't. [ticking] >> coming up, the politics of medical research. >> were you taking a swipe at the president's policy? >> it's either ethical, or it's not ethical. we decided that that was not a place that we were comfortable. >> that's ahead when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a stunning work of technology. introducing the e

i get this howard hughes-y feel with the planes, hollywood. do you think about that ever?, i hope i don't end up in a cinema by myself watching ice station zebra over and over again. i think i've got such a diverse set of interests, movies, aviation, technology-- >> howard hughes. >> well, i don't know if howard was involved in sports teams. >> allen's diverse set of interests also led him to invest in over 100 business ventures. most of them were poorly managed or ahead of their time, so they flopped, and he slid from being the third-richest man in the world to 57th. were you just too early, or was it that you really needed a bill gates and didn't have that other person to push it through? >> look, in microsoft days, you had some great ideas and some great execution between me and bill and many other people. you know, in technology, most things fail. most companies fail. but i had some whoppers. >> some of his whoppers, however, produced numerous patents. in a move that angered silicon valley, allen sued several giant companies, accusing them of infringing on those old pa

a few years ago they made a movie about howard hughes, the aviator built on his obsessive compulsive tendencies. compared to billy durant, howard was love middle class and ebenezer scrooge was a wild man compared to alfred sloan and yet the story has remained unknown outside of a small circle of karnack and historians while the name henry ford is almost been canonized in popular legend. by the way, billy actually came close to buying the ford motor company on two different occasions only to have a by henry himself the last minute. it's all the kind of material no screenwriter could invent but the story has never been told in a single narrative. the original general motors building here in detroit is one of the state leased buildings i've ever been in. in fact it was the largest office building in the world and its designated as the national historic landmark. as with many landmarks there's also a legend behind that building. general motors the longer occupies the site, but if you go there today and bring a pair of binoculars you can still see the letter d carved into the corners of ea

now we're entering real howard hughes territory here. how about this one? the pineapple express. that was some sort of seth rogen movie. >> all aboard! >> it turns out it's a 20-minute train tour of dole's hawaiian plantation. they practically built a whole theme park centered around fruits and vegetables. now it's actually sort of impressive in a michael jacksonesque kind of way, but it's not what we want necessarily from a publicly traded fruit and vegetable company that isn't doing that well. so why am i telling you dole is worth buying? mainly because of this asset sale the company announced yesterday where dole is selling its packaged foods and asian fresh produce biz to itochu for $1.7 billion. the stock spiked on the news but it actually closed flat yesterday. you know, that seems kind of nutty to me. dole should have been up big, i think. i think it should have stayed there. this simply calls attention to the fact that the market has been ignoring for a long time now. dole does own terrific assets. this is another case where some of the company's parts is worth a heck of

howard. jennifer highly. mary and her check. paul hughes. chris hughes. susan he we. robert hughes, jr.. john hubbard.hes. lamar holtz. >> get my big brother we miss you and love do end a special shot out to friends and family for support during the tough times to keep the strong. think do. >> william christopher hunt. joseph gerard hunter. and mine uncle of firefighter from rescue three per cry well loved son, brother, husband, son, brother, husband, fathe r, now a grandfather, a cousin and fend too many. think do. >> stephen high land, jr.. robert him all. thomas hynes. walter hines. michael i again frederick christopher noble. stephanie herve. todd is it. alexander. lacy ivory. into my father we love you and ms. you. and my father. dad it we love you, we miss you every day. >> broke jackson. jeremy jacobs. jason jacobs. michael jacobs. steven jacobsen. steven jacoby. jack dennis. rabin jalbert. amy jarret. france was on the air. called jeffers. carlos jenkins. luis jimenez, jr.. charros and john. and my grandfather poppy will always live in our hearts coming your family and friends love you. we kno