Reading with interest the first collection of these Cosmos Papers. I can not help but react to the repeated warnings that emerge that our earth faces disaster unless we learn to live with nature. Such signals are not new, and are familiar to all who study popular media comment on scientific affairs. So familiar, in fact, that society may become immune to the repeated flow of information that can be dismissed as alarmist, or ignored because there is nothing we can individually do to alter the drift of a world bent on suicide. Recent Inter-governmental gatherings, such as those at Rio or Kyoto, produce anodyne reactions-yes, we know we must so something, but not yet, not today. What sets the Cosmos Papers apart now, and hopefully in the future, are that they represent the personal views of eminent scientists prepared to place on record the concerns they have come to feel in the course of their work. As such, they deserve wide circulation. The Cosmos Letters, and the Cosmos Forum, are welcome development of the principles governing the Cosmos Award, now in its sixth year. No one can doubt the importance of the theme of the Award, the symbiosis of man and nature. But there can be only one Award each year. The increased exposure of the Cosmos message which can be achieved by the Cosmos Letters, and the Cosmos Forum series, is therefore to be welcome and encouraged. In fulfilling the objectives of the Cosmos Award, we face a challenge each year. Unlike other prize, which tend to focus on one field of scientific activity-biology, or chemistry, and so on- the merit of the Cosmos Medal is that it seeks to identify a winner whose work has made a significant contribution to the whole spectrum of the harmonious co-existence of nature and mankind. This is an immensely difficult task, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the recommenders who submit the names of candidates to the Committee of Experts, which gives the most thorough attention to every candidate proposed before reaching a decision on the prizewinner. Fulfilling the objectives of the Cosmos Foundation poses a problem: identifying and screening candidates across the wide spectrum of subject matter and geographical location is a daunting task.* The symbiosis of man and nature is the responsibility not only of science, but of the arts, politics, and industry worldwide. The first six prizewinners have been drawn from the academic arena, or from research foundations, in the developed world. But the fields of their activities- two from America, two from Britain, one each from France and Japan-have been truly international, and have reached in to areas of botanical research in the Rain Forests of the Amazon, ethnobiology in Oceania, plant ecology in S. E. Asia, wildlife studies in China and Mongolia, and ornithological and human ecology in Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific. The work of all the prizewinners has reached across the boundaries of individual disciplines, and their writing has had a profound effect on our understanding of nature. Further, two of the prizewinners have been the authors of literary work recognized as having made a seminal contribution to the understanding of the interface between man and nature. The Cosmos Prize can truly be said to have achieved international recognition and prestige in its six years existence. But we must continue to strive to exploit its potential for rewarding those, in whatever discipline or role, who by their courage and dedication, advance the frontiers of our knowledge and achievement in the wide perspective of our understanding of the natural world. Excellence must continue to be the fundamental quality of our assessment of candidates: but it must also take in to account the wide range of activities defined by the terms of the Cosmos Award. To achieve this, we need to receive from our recommenders candidates from the developing as well as the developed nations who are the forefront of the war against disease, famine, and natural disaster. The Cosmos Prize carries with it a financial reward which to a scientist or research team in the nations struggling for economic stability could be of huge assistance in furthering research potentially beneficial to all mankind. We need, too, to look outside the academic world to seek out and reward those in other fields-the engineers, environmentalists, planners, architects, politicians, media specialists and industrialists- who by their efforts are assisting the cause of creating a better under standing of the delicate balance of man and nature. There can only be one Cosmos Award in each year, and the selection process already owes much to the commitment of the recommenders and committee of experts. If we are to extend the range of subject matter, and thereby fulfill the objectives of the Cosmos Prize it may become yet more complex. But not to do so will be to ignore the great importance of carrying out to the fullest extent the mandate of the prize committee. The challenge must be accepted: the cause of protecting the natural world in its entirety from further decay is clearly expressed at the Cosmos Forums, and in these Cosmos Letters. The Cosmos Prize, in six years, has shown its ability to seek out and reward those at the sharp edge of research. We can take comfort from our achievements, but we must now intensify our efforts to ensure that, every year, we demonstrate the ability to reach out to the whole world, and to a wide spectrum of activities, in the selection process. There can be no more important cause in international affairs than overcoming the deterioration in our environment caused by the abuse of nature, in all its aspects. The key to success-if indeed, it is not already too late-must lie in improving our knowledge and our understanding of the natural world we humans share with other species. The Cosmos Foundation, its Prize, the Forum series, and the Cosmos Letters play but a small part in this huge campaign, but it is one which can grow in importance. In my younger years, I was much attracted by a quotation from 'The Lay Sermons' of the distinguish Darwinian Biologist, T. H. Huxley, who wrote in the nineteenth century- "The chess-board is the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient, but also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance". Now, I have doubts about this statement, for all that I accept the stern warning that carelessness or ignorance is our dealings with nature can and do have disastrous results. Huxley had the conceit of a new scientific age of discovery in assuming that we knew and understood the rules of the game, with we manifestly do not, and that nature is incapable of savagery and destruction, which it clearly is. Only by a constant effort to better understand and interpret the laws of nature can we make progress. That is what the Cosmos Award is all about. .* In 1998, 771 recommenders from 45 countries submitted 76 nominations, covering 15 countries. To this total, the committee of experts added nominations from 1996 and 1997, (nominations are valid for three years) making a total of 221 nominations reviewed in the current year.

Ted Allan CBE President of Honor, Bureau International des Expositions(U.K.)

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