In a rapidly globalizing society, dialogue is an important tool to weave together various ideals and knowledge in order to bring out the essence of our humanity. Perhaps what brings us to the level of effectively utilizing this dialogue is the answer to the key question 'What makes a real dialogue?'

Can science alone lead the way to a better global society? No, but it can contribute, if it can function in concert with society's other needs. This was the thesis that Professor Raghavendra Gadagkar tried to enlarge upon, in a session spanning from genes and individuals to societies and global interactions by looking at evolutionary backgrounds of animal and human behaviour. An astonishing number of animal species, from insects to mammals- including humans - show cooperative and altruistic behaviour. The studies of our animal cousins suggest that we humans have evolved to be 'nice' in a utilitarian way, needing an incentive to be do-gooders.

Nobel Prize winner, Sir John Sulston, convincingly advanced the case for generating freely accessible knowledge for its own sake and for the sake of future innovation. Using the paradigm of biomedical research as an example, he used vector diagrams to highlight what he (and many others) now perceive as a dangerous and ultimately unsustainable imbalance in the relationship between the interests of commercial, profit-driven industry, scientific discovery and medicine as a social enterprise. The privatisation of translational medical research has sacrificed an essential ingredient of Science itself: the open-ended nature of discovery and the free dissemination of knowledge. Collaboration among scientists, non-governmental organizations and private citizens is required to reform this system for the public good and perhaps even for the very survival of humanity.

The 2008 Symposium will start with an interactive session on the conditions necessary for a fruitful dialogue. Audience participation will be central during the next two days, with plenary sessions taking place in the mornings and discussion workshops in the afternoons. Two main interdisciplinary topics chosen by our international Scientific Board, provide the themes that will guide our debate.

The challenge in this contemporary, postmodern era is to realize and integrate the diverse fields of knowledge by which our lives are hemmed in. We must recognize that the fault-line between philosophies occurs not as an "epistemological division needed to protect high culture," but merely as a "sea of knowledge that is weakly valued," WKD Scientist-in-Residence Edward O. Wilson declared.