| IST Lecture by Martin Nowak - from Selfish Genes to Supercooperators |
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bridges vol. 24, December 2009 / News from the Network: Austrian Researchers Abroad By Astrid Roemer  The IST Austria lecture series, with the aim of introducing renowned researchers and their work to a scientific audience and the general public, began with a talk by Martin Nowak, professor of biology and mathematics at Harvard University and director of Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, presented November 25, 2009, at the IST Campus in Klosterneuburg.IST (The Institute of Science and Technology) officially opened its doors in June 2009 and is Austria's top post-graduate research institution. Its goal is to attract world-renowned researchers in order to perform innovative and groundbreaking research using a bottom-up approach. Following a welcome by President Thomas A. Henzinger, Dr. Nowak, who is also a member of the IST Scientific Advisory Board, introduced the 130 visitors to his field of research: the evolution of cooperation. Nowak's presentation was well received, as evidenced by the vibrant Q&A session that followed. Starting with Darwin and his Origin of Species, one has to conclude that "natural selection opposes cooperation," as the sole goal of a single-cell organism is self-replication. In such a competitive environment, it is in the best interest of survival to be selfish, as it would make no sense to help a competitor and, in the process, become extinct. Nevertheless, taking a closer look at multicellular organisms and their evolution, it actually turns out that "cooperation is needed for survival." 
Martin Nowak giving his talk about the evolution of cooperation
Kin-selection: "My family is more important than yours." The cooperation depends on the degree of relatedness between donor and recipient. The closer the relation, the more likely that cooperation will occur, as it is in the interest of the donor that genes similar to his own will survive. 
A perfect example of direct reciprocity
The donor decides to cooperate in thehope that he will get help from the recipient in the future. In this case, cooperation depends on the probability of a future meeting of donor and recipient. The higher the probability of such a meeting, the likelier the cooperation. Indirect reciprocity: "What goes around comes around." By helping the recipient, the donor builds a good reputation for himself; this will be useful for him in the future as others are then more likely to help him. Cooperation will most likely take place if the donor can be sure that his good deed will be known to others, thus increasing his good public image. Very important for indirect reciprocity is the monitoring of the social network by all individuals of a population which, in the case of humankind, eventually led to the development of human language in order to spread information concerning the reputation of individuals. 
Group selection à la Alexandre Dumas
Groups benefit from cooperative members who will readily help other members of the group or sacrifice themselves for the common good. Such groups will, in the long term, be more competitive compared to groups of non-cooperators and thus will prevail. Fairly recently, Nowak applied his interest in the evolution of cooperation to the field of cancer research because, as he puts it, "Cancer is a breakdown of cooperation in multicellular organisms. It reverts the single cell back to the primitive program of self-replication." Even though this line of research is just developing, it shows great potential for one day effectively fighting cancer. The IST Austria lecture series will be continued in 2010. For pictures of the first IST lecture and further information on upcoming events, please refer to the IST web site: http://www.ist.ac.at
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The author, Astrid Roemer, is head of projektSERVICE at the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Vienna
and former intern at the Office of Science & Technology at the
Embassy of Austria in Washington, DC.
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