With the discovery of the 14,001st ant species and the swelling excitement and debate surrounding Dr. Wilson's upcoming novel on social evolution, there's no time like the present to step into the wonderful world of insects and biology. Here's a showcase on further reading by this Pulitzer Prize winning writer and scientist at Harvard University Press:
Wilson Multimedia:
Click here to view a collection of videos on E.O. Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities." This illuminating one-hour lecture on the "consilience" of knowledge is divided into nine videos spanning topics from genetic and cultural co-evolution to erotic aesthetics. The videos feature a glossary of terms used by Wilson, as well as numerous charts, drawings, and photographs to accompany theoretical explanation.
Click here to listen to a talk by E.O. Wilson entitled "The Creation: A Meeting of Science and Religion," discussing his 2006 work The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. This talk was given at Harvard Book Store, November 2006.
Read more about The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth.
On Human NatureWith a new Preface
Edward O. Wilson
* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
In his new preface E. O. Wilson reflects on how he came to write this book: how The Insect Societies led him to write Sociobiology, and how the political and religious uproar that engulfed that book persuaded him to write another book that would better explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior.
Sociobiology: The New SynthesisTwenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition
Edward O. Wilson
When this classic work was first published in 1975, it created a new discipline and started a tumultuous round in the age-old nature versus nurture debate. The controversy surrounding the book's publication--and surrounding its central claim that human social behavior has a biological foundation--reverberates to this day. In the introduction to this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, Edward O. Wilson shows how research in human genetics and neuroscience over the past quarter of a century has strengthened the case for a biological understanding of human nature.
The AntsBert Hölldobler
Edward O. Wilson
* 1991 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction
This landmark work, the distillation of a lifetime of research by the world's leading myrmecologists, is a thoroughgoing survey of one of the largest and most diverse groups of animals on the planet. Hölldobler and Wilson review in exhaustive detail virtually all topics in the anatomy, physiology, social organization, ecology, and natural history of the ants. In large format, with almost a thousand line drawings, photographs, and paintings, it is one of the most visually rich and all-encompassing views of any group of organisms on earth.
"While it is impossible to write a definitive tome and make it 100 percent transparent to the nonscientist, this volume achieves the utmost clarity...Science is rarely good literature. The Ants is an exalting exception."
--Thomas E. Lovejoy, New York Times Book Review
Journey to the AntsA Story of Scientific Exploration
Bert Hölldobler
Edward O. Wilson
Richly illustrated and delightfully written, Journey to the Ants
combines autobiography and scientific lore to convey the
excitement and pleasure the study of ants can offer. The authors
interweave their personal adventures with the social lives of ants,
building a remarkable account of these abundant insects'
evolutionary achievement.
twice so far. It brings back the joy of science and restores the sense of wonder, it is truly food
for thought. For me it is a beloved book that will stay at my bedside."
--James E. Lovelock, Times Higher Education Supplement
Edward O. Wilson
"A fine memoir by one of America's foremost evolutionary biologists.
E. O. Wilson defines biophilia as 'the innate tendency [in human
beings] to focus on life and lifelike process. To an extent still
undervalued in philosophy and religion, our existence depends on
this propensity, our spirit is woven from it, hopes rise on its
currents.' Scientifically demonstrating this human propensity would
be a task beyond the scope of today's biology, and Wilson wisely
eschews that course. Instead, he relies on his own experiences and
feelings as a field biologist, cleverly interweaving them with the
facts, history, and philosophy of evolutionary biology and an eclectic
set of cultural observations."
--Paul R. Ehrlich, Natural History
The Diversity of LifeEdward O. Wilson
Wilson, internationally regarded as the dean of biodiversity studies,
conducts us on a tour through time, traces the processes that
create new species in bursts of adaptive radiation, and points out
the cataclysmic events that have disrupted evolution and
diminished global diversity over the past 600 million years.
"We need prophets to shake the souls and grab the attention of
those who have eyes but see not. The Diversity of Life is a deft and
thoroughly successful mixture of information and prophecy."
--Stephen Jay Gould, Nature
Pheidole in the New WorldA Dominant, Hyperdiverse Ant Genus
Edward O. Wilson
Species of the genus Pheidole are the most abundant and diverse
ants of the New World and range from the northern United States
to Argentina. In this richly illustrated book, Wilson untangles its
classification for the first time, characterizing all 625 known species,
341 of which are new to science, and ordering them into 19 species
groups. The author's keys and drawings, the latter showing
complete body views arranged in the style of field books, allow rapid
identification by anyone with an elementary understanding of
entomology. An important innovation in this book is the inclusion
of a CD-ROM containing high-resolution digital images of the type specimens. The CD-ROM is
designed to allow quick retrieval of information such as known range, group membership,
measurements, and color. The CD-ROM thus will be useful in creating "instant" field guides,
comparison charts, and local checklists.
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Comments: 10
I saw Mr. Wilson recently in a science program on television. Would have loved to have had him as instructor.
"The Creation" by E.O. Wilson is a great introduction to one of the great challenges of the 21st century. Wilson makes a short plea here for science and religion to join forces in defending the natural world from the increasingly destructive human race. Some of his points are wonderfully telling, such as the speech that he invents to justify our bad behaviors- and the response he crafts to explain why such justifications are nonsense. Yes, the laws of nature still apply to humans as well as Dodos. This is an important book from a prophet of science. I like his term "biophilia"- the love of living things.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kLNDd06adSo
One of the strongest memories of my very early childhood, was sitting by a small anthill and writing down in a little boy''s language, what each little ant was doing. I often was fascinated to see what happens when my little finger wiped across their scent paths, and how, as small groups, they overcame that intrusion. Ants can be one of the few creatures we study that clearly expresses how individuals sacrifice their personal investment in life for the good of the colony's survival, and for ants, that natural selection determined by the historical circumstances of their habitats and its resources would demand it.
Wilson is very invested in transmitting his understanding of the need for biodiversity and cultural diversity inherent to human nature and life, especially as it applies to how culturally- and personally-relative clashing is leading us to making a big mess in our nests, our habitats. What we often forget as we engage cultures that have a different set of symbols and institutions, which often may feel threatening to our own, is that the evolution of "their" cultural patterns and institutions came about as means to construct locally-relevant sustainable ways to succeed at life. That's the underlying goal of any culture's construct, including the American Way. But the way an Iranian may be attempting to survive is just as valid. Cultural diversity, in my opinion, may figure in just as importantly as biodiversity.
Just like natural selection seems to be at its most biological efficient when there is a natural (often suggested as random) response to whatever stressors impact a population, I believe that it is equally important to allow cultural diversity have its natural expression as the world globalizes. Preserving cultural diversity like this allows whatever unique challenges each individual population groups may have historically experienced in their local habitats to be amalgamated into the larger frame of a global population surviving its impact on the global environment. In this way, we all work together as a globalized human society that has become more aware of an almost endless set of historical challenges from all sorts of habitats that feed into this natural process.
By attempting with might to weed out a culture that we don't like, or to control their resources, we may wind up losing some some important ways to understand our own survival. Beneath all the facades of political rhetoric, we each of us from any culture hold in us a rich wealth of information that can benefit the life not only of human beings on the planet, but the whole global habitat, which is the same thing ultimately. Our individual egos then would be more oriented to be in the service of the common good of all life.