wo of the world’s leading scientists gave popular public lectures at the Royal Society as part of the Foundation’s ongoing series on the “Nature of Human Knowledge and Understanding.”

The first lecture was given by leading theoretical cosmologist George F.R. Ellis, who examined the relation between physics, chemistry and philosophy in an address titled “Science, complexity and the nature of existence.”

“Physics and chemistry do not by themselves provide an adequate basis for metaphysical speculations about the nature of existence,” says Ellis.

Ellis is renowned for his contributions to the dialogue between science and religion. He won the 2004 Templeton Prize and is a Professor of Applied Mathematics and Distinguished Professor of Complex Systems at the University of Cape Town, as well as the G.C. McVittie Visiting Professor of Astronomy at Queen Mary, University of London.

A prolific writer, George Ellis’ first book, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, was written with Stephen Hawking and published in 1973. He is currently studying the inception of the universe.

For mathematical biologist Martin Nowak, it is the act of cooperation, not simply “survival of the fittest,” that helps further define evolution. Delivering a Royal Society lecture with a strong Austrian accent, Nowak quips, “My students at Oxford always told me I sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I have no political ambitions. Instead I want to talk about the evolution of cooperation.”

Nowak explains that genes, chromosomes, cells, organisms, animals and people all used cooperation to make evolutionary progress. “It is one of our secrets of success… Interestingly, cooperation seems to be needed whenever there is a major transition in evolution,” says Nowak.

Director of The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard since July 2003, Nowak has a lifelong interest in all aspects of mathematical biology. “I was embarrassed to tell my parents I was working on games,” he says. His research probes the dynamics of infectious diseases, cancer genetics, the evolution of cooperation and human language. His first book, written with Robert May, entitled, Virus Dynamics, was published by Oxford University Press in 2000.
Webcasts of both lectures are available at

www.templeton.org/funding_areas/core_themes/science_and_religion/