Can science, religion coexist in peace?

Almost 14 billion years after the big bang, and 3.5 billion years since the first bacteria appeared on Earth, humans occupy just one branch of the tree of life.

We share an evolutionary limb with other eukaryotes, creatures whose membrane-bound cells carry genetic material. Our biological neighbors developed over time just as we did, by the evolutionary forces of mutation and natural selection. They include plants, fungi, and slime molds.

Despite that humble company, said Martin A. Nowak, Harvard professor of mathematics and biology, humans have a profound "claim to fame" — language. He called the acquisition of complex expression "the only truly interesting thing to happen in the last 600 million years," and the most important of all evolutionary events.