John Templeton Foundation

On a crisp May evening, as the sun was setting over the Pacific Ocean, dozens of scientists and entertainment notables gathered in Santa Monica, California for an event hosted by the National Academy of Sciences and the John Templeton Foundation.

April 21, 2026 — Professor Simon Conway Morris, a groundbreaking paleontologist at the University of Cambridge, has been awarded the 2026 Templeton Prize for his outstanding contributions to the field of evolutionary biology and his enduring efforts to explore the broader human implications of his scientific discoveries. Professor Conway Morris is internationally recognized for his pioneering research on the Cambrian explosion and his meticulous analysis of the Burgess Shale fauna.

At a gathering of scientists and storytellers, psychologist Alison Gopnik called for a shift from AI mythmaking to more rigorous questions about culture, creativity, and governance.

We live in an era of imminent explainability. We can explain how pathogens spread disease, what factors produce mental illness, and how fermentation makes dough rise. Once attributed to supernatural, divine, and moral forces, we can now elucidate these processes through clear scientific principles. Painstaking experimentation, education, and scholarly exchange have enabled humans to learn so much.

Lift your head. Beyond the incessant scrolling, crowded calendar, and frantic to-do list, There is a vast, beautiful world waiting to be seen. Wonders—both ordinary and extraordinary—surround us every day, if we pause to look and consider them. Beauty has long been considered difficult to study and measure—too entangled with personal taste, culture, and feeling to fit easily into a scientific experiment.

Templeton.org is in English. Only a few pages are translated into other languages. Usted está viendo Templeton.org en español. Tenga en cuenta que solamente hemos traducido algunas páginas a su idioma. El resto permanecen en inglés. Você está vendo Templeton.org em Português. Apenas algumas páginas do site são traduzidas para o seu idioma. As páginas restantes são apenas em Inglês. أنت تشاهد Templeton.org باللغة العربية. تتم ترجمة بعض صفحات الموقع فقط إلى لغتك. الصفحات المتبقية هي باللغة الإنجليزية فقط.

At a first glance, the South Shore commuter train from Chicago to South Bend appears quite modest, more practical than poetic. It is a train that delivers people into Indiana, and many of them continue by car to small Michigan towns along frozen lakeshores and snow-lined cornfields. Places where families gather for holidays and where winter seems to hold an austere kind of beauty.

After the flurry of holiday shopping, celebrations, and family gatherings, the week between Christmas and New Year’s softens the intensity of daily life. Time behaves differently. It feels suspended, a pause between endings and beginnings. Emails slow. Offices empty. Mornings unfold without the usual press of obligations. There are shared movies and snowy mornings. Fireplaces glow, and families linger.

Beneath the public theater of social media likes and re-tweets, personal reputations are forged in quieter spaces: private threads, text chains, and Slack channels, where trust is earned, grace extended, and futures quietly rewritten. Most of what shapes our reputations is invisible; applause, large follower counts, and public praise don’t guarantee a promotion.

Templeton.org is in English. Only a few pages are translated into other languages. Usted está viendo Templeton.org en español. Tenga en cuenta que solamente hemos traducido algunas páginas a su idioma. El resto permanecen en inglés. Você está vendo Templeton.org em Português. Apenas algumas páginas do site são traduzidas para o seu idioma. As páginas restantes são apenas em Inglês. أنت تشاهد Templeton.org باللغة العربية. تتم ترجمة بعض صفحات الموقع فقط إلى لغتك. الصفحات المتبقية هي باللغة الإنجليزية فقط.