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E. O. Wilson

Edward Osborne Wilson ForMemRS (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, ecologist, and entomologist known for developing the field of sociobiology.

E. O. Wilson

Wilson in 2007
Born
Edward Osborne Wilson

(1929-06-10)June 10, 1929
DiedDecember 26, 2021(2021-12-26) (aged 92)
Education
Known for
Spouse
Irene Kelley
(m. 1955)
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisA Monographic Revision of the Ant Genus Lasius (1955)
Doctoral advisorFrank M. Carpenter
Doctoral students

Born in Alabama, Wilson found an early interest in nature and frequented the outdoors. At age seven, he was partially blinded in a fishing accident. Due to his reduced sight, Wilson resolved to study entomology. After matriculating at the University of Alabama, Wilson transferred to complete his dissertation at Harvard University, where he distinguished himself in multiple fields. In 1956, he co-authored a paper defining the theory of character displacement. In 1967, he developed the theory of island biogeography with Robert MacArthur.

Wilson was the Pellegrino University Research Professor Emeritus in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, a lecturer at Duke University,[2] and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. The Royal Swedish Academy awarded Wilson the Crafoord Prize. He was a humanist laureate of the International Academy of Humanism.[3][4] He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (for On Human Nature in 1979, and The Ants in 1991) and a New York Times bestselling author for The Social Conquest of Earth,[5] Letters to a Young Scientist,[5][6] and The Meaning of Human Existence.

Wilson's work received both praise and criticism during his lifetime. His book Sociobiology was a particular flashpoint for controversy, and drew criticism from the Sociobiology Study Group.[7][8] Wilson's interpretation of the theory of evolution resulted in a widely reported dispute with Richard Dawkins.[9] Examinations of his letters after his death revealed that he had supported the psychologist J. Philippe Rushton, whose work on race and intelligence is widely regarded by the scientific community as deeply flawed and racist.

Early life edit

Edward Osborne Wilson was born on June 10, 1929, in Birmingham, Alabama. He was the single child of Inez Linnette Freeman and Edward Osborne Wilson Sr.[10] According to his autobiography, Naturalist, he grew up in various towns in the Southern United States which included Mobile, Decatur, and Pensacola.[11] From an early age, he was interested in natural history. His father was an alcoholic who eventually committed suicide. His parents allowed him to bring home black widow spiders and keep them on the porch.[12] They divorced when he was seven years old.

In the same year that his parents divorced, Wilson blinded himself in his right eye in a fishing accident.[13] Despite the prolonged pain, he did not stop fishing.[14] He did not complain because he was anxious to stay outdoors, and never sought medical treatment.[14] Several months later, his right pupil clouded over with a cataract.[14] He was admitted to Pensacola Hospital to have the lens removed.[14] Wilson writes, in his autobiography, that the "surgery was a terrifying [19th] century ordeal".[14] Wilson retained full sight in his left eye, with a vision of 20/10.[14] The 20/10 vision prompted him to focus on "little things": "I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did, and took an interest in them automatically."[14] Although he had lost his stereoscopic vision, he could still see fine print and the hairs on the bodies of small insects.[14] His reduced ability to observe mammals and birds led him to concentrate on insects.

At the age of nine, Wilson undertook his first expeditions at Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. He began to collect insects and he gained a passion for butterflies. He would capture them using nets made with brooms, coat hangers, and cheesecloth bags.[14] Going on these expeditions led to Wilson's fascination with ants. He describes in his autobiography how one day he pulled the bark of a rotting tree away and discovered citronella ants underneath.[14] The worker ants he found were "short, fat, brilliant yellow, and emitted a strong lemony odor".[14] Wilson said the event left a "vivid and lasting impression".[14] He also earned the Eagle Scout award and served as Nature Director of his Boy Scouts summer camp. At age 18, intent on becoming an entomologist, he began by collecting flies, but the shortage of insect pins during World War II caused him to switch to ants, which could be stored in vials. With the encouragement of Marion R. Smith, a myrmecologist from the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, Wilson began a survey of all the ants of Alabama. This study led him to report the first colony of fire ants in the U.S., near the port of Mobile.[15]

Education edit

Wilson said he went to 15 or 16 schools during 11 years of schooling.[12] He was concerned that he might not be able to afford to go to a university, and he tried to enlist in the United States Army, intending to earn U.S. government financial support for his education. He failed the Army medical examination due to his impaired eyesight,[14] but was able to afford to enroll in the University of Alabama, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in 1949 and Master of Science in biology in 1950. The next year, Wilson transferred to Harvard University.[14]

Appointed to the Harvard Society of Fellows, he could travel on overseas expeditions, collecting ant species of Cuba and Mexico and travel the South Pacific, including Australia, New Guinea, Fiji, and New Caledonia, as well as to Sri Lanka. In 1955, he received his Ph.D. and married Irene Kelley.[16][17]

Career edit

 
Wilson in 2003

From 1956 until 1996, Wilson was part of the faculty of Harvard. He began as an ant taxonomist and worked on understanding their microevolution, how they developed into new species by escaping environmental disadvantages and moving into new habitats. He developed a theory of the "taxon cycle".[16]

In collaboration with mathematician William H. Bossert, Wilson developed a classification of pheromones based on insect communication patterns.[18] In the 1960s, he collaborated with mathematician and ecologist Robert MacArthur in developing the theory of species equilibrium. In the 1970s he and biologist Daniel S. Simberloff tested this theory on tiny mangrove islets in the Florida Keys. They eradicated all insect species and observed the repopulation by new species.[19] Wilson and MacArthur's book The Theory of Island Biogeography became a standard ecology text.[16]

In 1971, he published The Insect Societies, which argued that insect behavior and the behavior of other animals are influenced by similar evolutionary pressures.[20] In 1973, Wilson was appointed the curator of entomology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.[21] In 1975, he published the book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis applying his theories of insect behavior to vertebrates, and in the last chapter, to humans. He speculated that evolved and inherited tendencies were responsible for hierarchical social organization among humans. In 1978 he published On Human Nature, which dealt with the role of biology in the evolution of human culture and won a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.[16]

Wilson was named the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science in 1976 and, after his retirement from Harvard in 1996, he became the Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus.[21]

In 1981 after collaborating with biologist Charles Lumsden, he published Genes, Mind and Culture, a theory of gene-culture coevolution. In 1990 he published The Ants, co-written with zoologist Bert Hölldobler, winning his second Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.[16]

In the 1990s, he published The Diversity of Life (1992); an autobiography, Naturalist (1994); and Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) about the unity of the natural and social sciences.[16] Wilson was praised for his environmental advocacy, and his secular-humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters.[22]

Wilson was characterized by several titles during his career, including the "father of biodiversity,"[23][24] "ant man,"[25] and "Darwin's heir."[26][27][28] In a PBS interview, David Attenborough described Wilson as "a magic name to many of us working in the natural world, for two reasons. First, he is a towering example of a specialist, a world authority. Nobody in the world has ever known as much as Ed Wilson about ants. But, in addition to that intense knowledge and understanding, he has the widest of pictures. He sees the planet and the natural world that it contains in amazing detail but extraordinary coherence".[29]

Disagreement with Richard Dawkins edit

Although Dawkins defended Wilson during the so-called "sociobiology debate",[30] a disagreement between them arose over the theory of evolution.[9][31] The disagreement began in 2012 when Dawkins wrote a critical review of Wilson's book The Social Conquest of Earth in Prospect Magazine.[9] In the review, Dawkins criticized Wilson for rejecting kin selection and for supporting group selection, labeling it "bland" and "unfocused," and he wrote that the book's theoretical errors were "important, pervasive, and integral to its thesis in a way that renders it impossible to recommend".[32][33] Wilson responded in the same magazine and wrote that Dawkins made "little connection to the part he criticizes" and accused him of engaging in rhetoric.[31]

In 2014, Wilson said in an interview, "There is no dispute between me and Richard Dawkins and there never has been, because he's a journalist, and journalists are people that report what the scientists have found and the arguments I’ve had have actually been with scientists doing research".[31] Dawkins responded in a tweet: "I greatly admire EO Wilson & his huge contributions to entomology, ecology, biogeography, conservation, etc. He's just wrong on kin selection" and later added, "Anybody who thinks I'm a journalist who reports what other scientists think is invited to read The Extended Phenotype".[31] Biologist Jerry Coyne wrote that Wilson's remarks were "unfair, inaccurate, and uncharitable".[34] In 2021, in an obituary to Wilson, Dawkins stated that their dispute was "purely scientific".[35] Dawkins wrote that he stands by his critical review and doesn't regret "its outspoken tone", but noted that he also stood by his "profound admiration for Professor Wilson and his life work".[35]

Support of J. Philippe Rushton edit

Prior to Wilson's death, his personal correspondences were donated to the Library of Congress at the library's request.[36] Following his death, several articles were published discussing the discrepancy between Wilson's legacy as a champion of biogeography and conservation biology, and his support of scientific racist pseudoscientist J. Philippe Rushton over several years. Rushton was a controversial psychologist at the University of Western Ontario, who later headed the Pioneer Fund.[36][37][38]

From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, Wilson wrote several emails to Rushton's colleagues defending Rushton's work in the face of widespread criticism for scholarly misconduct, misrepresentation of data, and confirmation bias, all of which were allegedly used by Rushton to support his personal ideas on race.[36] Wilson also sponsored an article written by Rushton in PNAS,[39] and during the review process, Wilson intentionally sought out reviewers for the article who he believed would likely already agree with its premise.[36] Wilson kept his support of Rushton's racist ideologies behind-the-scenes so as to not draw too much attention to himself or tarnish his own reputation.[40] Wilson responded to another request from Rushton to sponsor a second PNAS article with the following: "You have my support in many ways, but for me to sponsor an article on racial differences in the PNAS would be counterproductive for both of us." Wilson also remarked that the reason Rushton's ideologies were not more widely supported is because of the "... fear of being called racist, which is virtually a death sentence in American academia if taken seriously. I admit that I myself have tended to avoid the subject of Rushton's work, out of fear."[36]

In 2022, the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation issued a statement rejecting Wilson's support of Rushton and racism, on behalf of the board of directors and staff.[41]

Work edit

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, 1975 edit

 
Wilson at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 2007

Wilson used sociobiology and evolutionary principles to explain the behavior of social insects and then to understand the social behavior of other animals, including humans, thus establishing sociobiology as a new scientific field.[42] He argued that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is the product of heredity, environmental stimuli, and past experiences, and that free will is an illusion. He referred to the biological basis of behavior as the "genetic leash".[43]: 127–128  The sociobiological view is that all animal social behavior is governed by epigenetic rules worked out by the laws of evolution. This theory and research proved to be seminal, controversial, and influential.[44]

Wilson argued that the unit of selection is a gene, the basic element of heredity. The target of selection is normally the individual who carries an ensemble of genes of certain kinds. With regard to the use of kin selection in explaining the behavior of eusocial insects, the "new view that I'm proposing is that it was group selection all along, an idea first roughly formulated by Darwin."[45]

Sociobiological research was at the time particularly controversial with regard to its application to humans.[46] The theory established a scientific argument for rejecting the common doctrine of tabula rasa, which holds that human beings are born without any innate mental content and that culture functions to increase human knowledge and aid in survival and success.[47]

Reception and controversy edit

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis was initially met with praise by most biologists.[7][8] After substantial criticism of the book was launched by the Sociobiology Study Group, associated with the organization Science for the People, a major controversy known as the "sociobiology debate" ensued,[7][8] and Wilson was accused of racism, misogyny, and support for eugenics.[48] Several of Wilson's colleagues at Harvard,[49] such as Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould, both members of the Group, were strongly opposed. Both focused their criticism mostly on Wilson's sociobiological writings.[50] Gould, Lewontin, and other members, wrote "Against 'Sociobiology'" in an open letter criticizing Wilson's "deterministic view of human society and human action".[51] Other public lectures, reading groups, and press releases were organized criticizing Wilson's work. In response, Wilson produced a discussion article entitled "Academic Vigilantism and the Political Significance of Sociobiology" in BioScience.[52][53]

In February 1978, while participating in a discussion on sociobiology at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Wilson was surrounded, chanted at and doused with water[a] by members of the International Committee Against Racism, who accused Wilson of advocating racism and genetic determinism. Steven Jay Gould, who was present at the event, and Science for the People, which had previously protested Wilson, condemned the attack.[58][55]

Philosopher Mary Midgley encountered Sociobiology in the process of writing Beast and Man (1979)[59] and significantly rewrote the book to offer a critique of Wilson's views. Midgley praised the book for the study of animal behavior, clarity, scholarship, and encyclopedic scope, but extensively critiqued Wilson for conceptual confusion, scientism, and anthropomorphism of genetics.[60]

On Human Nature, 1978 edit

Wilson wrote in his 1978 book On Human Nature, "The evolutionary epic is probably the best myth we will ever have."[61] Wilson's fame prompted use of the morphed phrase epic of evolution.[22] The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979.[62]

The Ants, 1990 edit

Wilson, along with Bert Hölldobler, carried out a systematic study of ants and ant behavior,[63] culminating in the 1990 encyclopedic work The Ants. Because much self-sacrificing behavior on the part of individual ants can be explained on the basis of their genetic interests in the survival of the sisters, with whom they share 75% of their genes (though the actual case is some species' queens mate with multiple males and therefore some workers in a colony would only be 25% related), Wilson argued for a sociobiological explanation for all social behavior on the model of the behavior of the social insects.

Wilson said in reference to ants that "Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species".[64] He asserted that individual ants and other eusocial species were able to reach higher Darwinian fitness putting the needs of the colony above their own needs as individuals because they lack reproductive independence: individual ants cannot reproduce without a queen, so they can only increase their fitness by working to enhance the fitness of the colony as a whole. Humans, however, do possess reproductive independence, and so individual humans enjoy their maximum level of Darwinian fitness by looking after their own survival and having their own offspring.[65]

Consilience, 1998 edit

In his 1998 book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Wilson discussed methods that have been used to unite the sciences and might be able to unite the sciences with the humanities. He argued that knowledge is a single, unified thing, not divided between science and humanistic inquiry.[66] Wilson used the term "consilience" to describe the synthesis of knowledge from different specialized fields of human endeavor. He defined human nature as a collection of epigenetic rules, the genetic patterns of mental development. He argued that culture and rituals are products, not parts, of human nature. He said art is not part of human nature, but our appreciation of art is. He suggested that concepts such as art appreciation, fear of snakes, or the incest taboo (Westermarck effect) could be studied by scientific methods of the natural sciences and be part of interdisciplinary research.

Spiritual and political beliefs edit

Scientific humanism edit

Wilson coined the phrase scientific humanism as "the only worldview compatible with science's growing knowledge of the real world and the laws of nature".[67] Wilson argued that it is best suited to improve the human condition. In 2003, he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.[68]

God and religion edit

On the question of God, Wilson described his position as "provisional deism"[69] and explicitly denied the label of "atheist", preferring "agnostic".[70] He explained his faith as a trajectory away from traditional beliefs: "I drifted away from the church, not definitively agnostic or atheistic, just Baptist & Christian no more."[43] Wilson argued that belief in God and the rituals of religion are products of evolution.[71] He argued that they should not be rejected or dismissed, but further investigated by science to better understand their significance to human nature. In his book The Creation, Wilson wrote that scientists ought to "offer the hand of friendship" to religious leaders and build an alliance with them, stating that "Science and religion are two of the most potent forces on Earth and they should come together to save the creation."[72]

Wilson made an appeal to the religious community on the lecture circuit at Midland College, Texas, for example, and that "the appeal received a 'massive reply'", that a covenant had been written and that a "partnership will work to a substantial degree as time goes on".[73]

In a New Scientist interview published on January 21, 2015, however, Wilson said that religious faith is "dragging us down", and:

I would say that for the sake of human progress, the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to the point of eliminating, religious faiths. But certainly not eliminating the natural yearnings of our species or the asking of these great questions.[74]

Ecology edit

Wilson said that, if he could start his life over he would work in microbial ecology, when discussing the reinvigoration of his original fields of study since the 1960s.[75] He studied the mass extinctions of the 20th century and their relationship to modern society, and identifying mass extinction as the greatest threat to Earth's future.[76] In 1998 argued for an ecological approach at the Capitol:

Now when you cut a forest, an ancient forest in particular, you are not just removing a lot of big trees and a few birds fluttering around in the canopy. You are drastically imperiling a vast array of species within a few square miles of you. The number of these species may go to tens of thousands. ... Many of them are still unknown to science, and science has not yet discovered the key role undoubtedly played in the maintenance of that ecosystem, as in the case of fungi, microorganisms, and many of the insects.[77]

From the late 1970s Wilson was actively involved in the global conservation of biodiversity, contributing and promoting research. In 1984 he published Biophilia, a work that explored the evolutionary and psychological basis of humanity's attraction to the natural environment. This work introduced the word biophilia which influenced the shaping of modern conservation ethics. In 1988 Wilson edited the BioDiversity volume, based on the proceedings of the first US national conference on the subject, which also introduced the term biodiversity into the language. This work was very influential in creating the modern field of biodiversity studies.[78] In 2011, Wilson led scientific expeditions to the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and the archipelagos of Vanuatu and New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific. Wilson was part of the international conservation movement, as a consultant to Columbia University's Earth Institute, as a director of the American Museum of Natural History, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund.[16]

Understanding the scale of the extinction crisis led him to advocate for forest protection,[77] including the "Act to Save America's Forests", first introduced in 1998 and reintroduced in 2008, but never passed.[79] The Forests Now Declaration called for new markets-based mechanisms to protect tropical forests.[80] Wilson once said destroying a rainforest for economic gain was like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.[81] In 2014, Wilson called for setting aside 50% of Earth's surface for other species to thrive in as the only possible strategy to solve the extinction crisis. The idea became the basis for his book Half-Earth (2016) and for the Half-Earth Project of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.[82][83] Wilson's influence regarding ecology through popular science was discussed by Alan G. Gross in The Scientific Sublime (2018).[84]

Wilson was instrumental in launching the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)[85] initiative with the goal of creating a global database to include information on the 1.9 million species recognized by science. Currently, it includes information on practically all known species. This open and searchable digital repository for organism traits, measurements, interactions and other data has more than 300 international partners and countless scientists providing global users' access to knowledge of life on Earth. For his part, Wilson discovered and described more than 400 species of ants.[86][87]

Retirement and death edit

In 1996, Wilson officially retired from Harvard University, where he continued to hold the positions of Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology.[88] He fully retired from Harvard in 2002 at age 73. After stepping down, he published more than a dozen books, including a digital biology textbook for the iPad.[10][89]

He founded the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, which finances the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and is an "independent foundation" at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Wilson became a special lecturer at Duke University as part of the agreement.[90]

Wilson and his wife, Irene, resided in Lexington, Massachusetts.[16] He had a daughter, Catherine.[81] He was preceded in death by his wife (on August 7, 2021) and died in nearby Burlington on December 26, 2021, at the age of 92.[10][89]

Awards and honors edit

 
Wilson at a "fireside chat" during which he received the Addison Emery Verrill Medal in 2007
 
Wilson addresses the audience at the dedication of the Biophilia Center named for him at Nokuse Plantation in Walton County, Florida.

Wilson's scientific and conservation honors include:

Main works edit

  • Brown, W. L.; Wilson, E. O. (1956). "Character displacement". Systematic Zoology. 5 (2): 49–64. doi:10.2307/2411924. JSTOR 2411924., coauthored with William Brown Jr.; paper honored in 1986 as a Science Citation Classic, i.e., as one of the most frequently cited scientific papers of all time.[125]
  • The Theory of Island Biogeography, 1967, Princeton University Press (2001 reprint), ISBN 0-691-08836-5, with Robert H. MacArthur
  • The Insect Societies, 1971, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-45490-1
  • Sociobiology: The New Synthesis 1975, Harvard University Press, (Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition, 2000 ISBN 0-674-00089-7)
  • On Human Nature, 1979, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-01638-6, winner of the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
  • Genes, Mind and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process, 1981, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-34475-8
  • Promethean Fire: Reflections on the Origin of Mind, 1983, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-71445-8
  • Biophilia, 1984, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-07441-6
  • Success and Dominance in Ecosystems: The Case of the Social Insects, 1990, Inter-Research, ISSN 0932-2205
  • The Ants, 1990, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-04075-9, Winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize, with Bert Hölldobler
  • The Diversity of Life, 1992, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-21298-3, The Diversity of Life: Special Edition, ISBN 0-674-21299-1
  • The Biophilia Hypothesis, 1993, Shearwater Books, ISBN 1-55963-148-1, with Stephen R. Kellert
  • Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration, 1994, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-48525-4, with Bert Hölldobler
  • Naturalist, 1994, Shearwater Books, ISBN 1-55963-288-7
  • In Search of Nature, 1996, Shearwater Books, ISBN 1-55963-215-1, with Laura Simonds Southworth
  • Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, 1998, Knopf, ISBN 0-679-45077-7
  • The Future of Life, 2002, Knopf, ISBN 0-679-45078-5
  • Pheidole in the New World: A Dominant, Hyperdiverse Ant Genus, 2003, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-00293-8
  • The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, September 2006, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-393-06217-5
  • Nature Revealed: Selected Writings 1949–2006, ISBN 0-8018-8329-6
  • The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies, 2009, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-393-06704-0, with Bert Hölldobler
  • Anthill: A Novel, April 2010, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-393-07119-1
  • Kingdom of Ants: Jose Celestino Mutis and the Dawn of Natural History in the New World, 2010, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, with José María Gómez Durán ISBN 0-8018-9785-8
  • The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct, 2011, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-393-33868-3, with Bert Hölldobler
  • The Social Conquest of Earth, 2012, Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York, ISBN 0-87140-363-3
  • Letters to a Young Scientist, 2014, Liveright, ISBN 0-87140-385-4
  • A Window on Eternity: A Biologist's Walk Through Gorongosa National Park, 2014, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 1-4767-4741-5
  • The Meaning of Human Existence, 2014, Liveright, ISBN 0-87140-100-2
  • Half-Earth, 2016, Liveright, ISBN 978-1-63149-082-8
  • The Origins of Creativity, 2017, Liveright, ISBN 978-1-63149-318-8
  • Genesis: The Deep Origin of Societies, 2019, Liveright; ISBN 1-63149-554-2
  • Tales from the Ant World, 2020, Liveright, ISBN 978-1-63149-556-4[126][127]
  • Naturalist: A Graphic Adaptation November 10, 2020, Island Press; ISBN 978-1-61091-958-6[128]

Edited works edit

References edit

  1. ^ While primary and eyewitness accounts agree that the phrase "Racist Wilson you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!" was chanted, and that water was poured on Wilson's head, they disagree on whether a cup[54][55] or a pitcher/jug[56][57] was used.
  1. ^ a b . kew.org. Archived from the original on May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  2. ^ . Duke Chronicle. February 12, 2014. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  3. ^ . Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  4. ^ . AlabamaLiteraryMap.org. Archived from the original on December 8, 2010. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  5. ^ a b Cowles, Gregory. "Print & E-Books". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Hoffman, Jascha (March 25, 2013). "Advice to Researchers and Reanimating Dead Mice". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 1, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Segerstråle, Ullica (March 1, 1986). "Colleagues in conflict: An 'in vivo' analysis of the sociobiology controversy". Biology and Philosophy. 1 (1): 53–87. doi:10.1007/BF00127089. ISSN 1572-8404. S2CID 170270819. In October 1975, a group called the Sociobiology Study Group,' composed of professors, students, researchers and others from the Boston area launched an attack on Wilson's Sociobiology, which by then had received widespread publicity and positive reviews.
  8. ^ a b c Perry, George; Mace, Ruth (June 1, 2010). "The lack of acceptance of evolutionary approaches to human behaviour". Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. 8 (2): 105–125. doi:10.1556/jep.8.2010.2.2. ISSN 1789-2082. Sociobiology was initially well received by most biologists, who appreciated the detailed empirical and theoretical work on animal social behaviour... However, a huge controversy throughout the 1970s and 80s, known as the sociobiology debate, soon followed.
  9. ^ a b c Thorpe, Vanessa (June 23, 2012). "Richard Dawkins in furious row with EO Wilson over theory of evolution". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  10. ^ a b c Zimmer, Carl (December 27, 2021). "E.O. Wilson, a pioneer of evolutionary biology, dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  11. ^ Wilson, Edward O. (2006). Naturalist. Washington, D.C. p. 52. ISBN 1-59726-088-6. OCLC 69669557.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ a b Olsen, Erik; Gorman, James; Stein, Robin (December 27, 2021). "Video: The Last Word: E.O. Wilson". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  13. ^ "On the Accidental Career of E.O. Wilson". Literary Hub. March 26, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wilson, Edward O. (2006). Naturalist. Washington, D.C.: Island Press [for] Shearwater Books. ISBN 1-59726-088-6. OCLC 69669557.
  15. ^ Buhs, Joshua Blu (2004). The Fire Ant Wars: Nature, Science, and Public Policy in Twentieth-Century America. University of Chicago Press. pp. 32–34. ISBN 978-0-226-07981-3.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h "Edward O. Wilson biography and interview". achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Fuller, Amy Elisabeth, ed. (2011). "Edward O. Wilson". Contemporary Authors. Vol. 211. Gale. pp. 432–437. ISBN 978-1-4144-6167-0. ISSN 0275-7176. OCLC 755975998.
  18. ^ Vandenbergh, John, ed. (December 2, 2012) [1983]. Pheromones and Reproduction in Mammals. Elsevier. p. 254. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-710780-6.X5001-8. ISBN 978-0-323-15651-6.
  19. ^ Chambers Concise Dictionary of Scientists. Chambers. 1989. pp. 405–406. ISBN 1-85296-354-9. OCLC 20820593.
  20. ^ Muir, Hazel, ed. (1994). Larousse Dictionary of Scientists. Éditions Larousse. p. 555. ISBN 0-7523-0002-4. OCLC 30935778.
  21. ^ a b Moore, Randy; Decker, Mark D. (2008). "Edward O. Wilson (b. 1929)". More than Darwin: An Encyclopedia of the People and Places of the Evolution-Creationism Controversy. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 371–373. ISBN 978-0-313-34155-7. OCLC 177023758.
  22. ^ a b Novacek, Michael J. (2001). . CNN. Archived from the original on October 14, 2006. Retrieved November 8, 2006.
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wilson, edward, osborne, wilson, formemrs, june, 1929, december, 2021, american, biologist, naturalist, ecologist, entomologist, known, developing, field, sociobiology, formemrswilson, 2007bornedward, osborne, wilson, 1929, june, 1929birmingham, alabama, diedd. Edward Osborne Wilson ForMemRS June 10 1929 December 26 2021 was an American biologist naturalist ecologist and entomologist known for developing the field of sociobiology E O WilsonForMemRSWilson in 2007BornEdward Osborne Wilson 1929 06 10 June 10 1929Birmingham Alabama U S DiedDecember 26 2021 2021 12 26 aged 92 Burlington Massachusetts U S EducationUniversity of Alabama BS MS Harvard University PhD Known forSociobiology Island biogeography Epic of evolution Character displacement Biophilia hypothesis Taxon cycleSpouseIrene Kelley m 1955 wbr AwardsNewcomb Cleveland Prize 1967 National Medal of Science 1977 Leidy Award 1979 Pulitzer Prize 1979 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement 1984 Crafoord Prize 1990 Pulitzer Prize 1991 International Prize for Biology 1993 Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science 1994 Kistler Prize 2000 King Faisal Prize 2000 Global Environmental Citizen Award 2001 Nierenberg Prize 2001 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology 2010 International Cosmos Prize 2012 Kew International Medal 2014 1 Scientific careerFieldsEntomology MyrmecologyInstitutionsHarvard University Museum of Natural HistoryThesisA Monographic Revision of the Ant Genus Lasius 1955 Doctoral advisorFrank M CarpenterDoctoral studentsDaniel Simberloff 1969 Donald J Farish 1970 James D Weinrich 1976 Mark W Moffett 1987 Born in Alabama Wilson found an early interest in nature and frequented the outdoors At age seven he was partially blinded in a fishing accident Due to his reduced sight Wilson resolved to study entomology After matriculating at the University of Alabama Wilson transferred to complete his dissertation at Harvard University where he distinguished himself in multiple fields In 1956 he co authored a paper defining the theory of character displacement In 1967 he developed the theory of island biogeography with Robert MacArthur Wilson was the Pellegrino University Research Professor Emeritus in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University a lecturer at Duke University 2 and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry The Royal Swedish Academy awarded Wilson the Crafoord Prize He was a humanist laureate of the International Academy of Humanism 3 4 He was a two time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for On Human Nature in 1979 and The Ants in 1991 and a New York Times bestselling author for The Social Conquest of Earth 5 Letters to a Young Scientist 5 6 and The Meaning of Human Existence Wilson s work received both praise and criticism during his lifetime His book Sociobiology was a particular flashpoint for controversy and drew criticism from the Sociobiology Study Group 7 8 Wilson s interpretation of the theory of evolution resulted in a widely reported dispute with Richard Dawkins 9 Examinations of his letters after his death revealed that he had supported the psychologist J Philippe Rushton whose work on race and intelligence is widely regarded by the scientific community as deeply flawed and racist Contents 1 Early life 1 1 Education 2 Career 2 1 Disagreement with Richard Dawkins 2 2 Support of J Philippe Rushton 3 Work 3 1 Sociobiology The New Synthesis 1975 3 1 1 Reception and controversy 3 2 On Human Nature 1978 3 3 The Ants 1990 3 4 Consilience 1998 4 Spiritual and political beliefs 4 1 Scientific humanism 4 2 God and religion 4 3 Ecology 5 Retirement and death 6 Awards and honors 7 Main works 7 1 Edited works 8 References 8 1 Sources 8 1 1 Books 8 1 2 Journals 8 1 3 Newspapers 9 External linksEarly life editEdward Osborne Wilson was born on June 10 1929 in Birmingham Alabama He was the single child of Inez Linnette Freeman and Edward Osborne Wilson Sr 10 According to his autobiography Naturalist he grew up in various towns in the Southern United States which included Mobile Decatur and Pensacola 11 From an early age he was interested in natural history His father was an alcoholic who eventually committed suicide His parents allowed him to bring home black widow spiders and keep them on the porch 12 They divorced when he was seven years old In the same year that his parents divorced Wilson blinded himself in his right eye in a fishing accident 13 Despite the prolonged pain he did not stop fishing 14 He did not complain because he was anxious to stay outdoors and never sought medical treatment 14 Several months later his right pupil clouded over with a cataract 14 He was admitted to Pensacola Hospital to have the lens removed 14 Wilson writes in his autobiography that the surgery was a terrifying 19th century ordeal 14 Wilson retained full sight in his left eye with a vision of 20 10 14 The 20 10 vision prompted him to focus on little things I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did and took an interest in them automatically 14 Although he had lost his stereoscopic vision he could still see fine print and the hairs on the bodies of small insects 14 His reduced ability to observe mammals and birds led him to concentrate on insects At the age of nine Wilson undertook his first expeditions at Rock Creek Park in Washington D C He began to collect insects and he gained a passion for butterflies He would capture them using nets made with brooms coat hangers and cheesecloth bags 14 Going on these expeditions led to Wilson s fascination with ants He describes in his autobiography how one day he pulled the bark of a rotting tree away and discovered citronella ants underneath 14 The worker ants he found were short fat brilliant yellow and emitted a strong lemony odor 14 Wilson said the event left a vivid and lasting impression 14 He also earned the Eagle Scout award and served as Nature Director of his Boy Scouts summer camp At age 18 intent on becoming an entomologist he began by collecting flies but the shortage of insect pins during World War II caused him to switch to ants which could be stored in vials With the encouragement of Marion R Smith a myrmecologist from the National Museum of Natural History in Washington Wilson began a survey of all the ants of Alabama This study led him to report the first colony of fire ants in the U S near the port of Mobile 15 Education edit Wilson said he went to 15 or 16 schools during 11 years of schooling 12 He was concerned that he might not be able to afford to go to a university and he tried to enlist in the United States Army intending to earn U S government financial support for his education He failed the Army medical examination due to his impaired eyesight 14 but was able to afford to enroll in the University of Alabama where he earned his Bachelor of Science in 1949 and Master of Science in biology in 1950 The next year Wilson transferred to Harvard University 14 Appointed to the Harvard Society of Fellows he could travel on overseas expeditions collecting ant species of Cuba and Mexico and travel the South Pacific including Australia New Guinea Fiji and New Caledonia as well as to Sri Lanka In 1955 he received his Ph D and married Irene Kelley 16 17 Career edit nbsp Wilson in 2003From 1956 until 1996 Wilson was part of the faculty of Harvard He began as an ant taxonomist and worked on understanding their microevolution how they developed into new species by escaping environmental disadvantages and moving into new habitats He developed a theory of the taxon cycle 16 In collaboration with mathematician William H Bossert Wilson developed a classification of pheromones based on insect communication patterns 18 In the 1960s he collaborated with mathematician and ecologist Robert MacArthur in developing the theory of species equilibrium In the 1970s he and biologist Daniel S Simberloff tested this theory on tiny mangrove islets in the Florida Keys They eradicated all insect species and observed the repopulation by new species 19 Wilson and MacArthur s book The Theory of Island Biogeography became a standard ecology text 16 In 1971 he published The Insect Societies which argued that insect behavior and the behavior of other animals are influenced by similar evolutionary pressures 20 In 1973 Wilson was appointed the curator of entomology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology 21 In 1975 he published the book Sociobiology The New Synthesis applying his theories of insect behavior to vertebrates and in the last chapter to humans He speculated that evolved and inherited tendencies were responsible for hierarchical social organization among humans In 1978 he published On Human Nature which dealt with the role of biology in the evolution of human culture and won a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction 16 Wilson was named the Frank B Baird Jr Professor of Science in 1976 and after his retirement from Harvard in 1996 he became the Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus 21 In 1981 after collaborating with biologist Charles Lumsden he published Genes Mind and Culture a theory of gene culture coevolution In 1990 he published The Ants co written with zoologist Bert Holldobler winning his second Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction 16 In the 1990s he published The Diversity of Life 1992 an autobiography Naturalist 1994 and Consilience The Unity of Knowledge 1998 about the unity of the natural and social sciences 16 Wilson was praised for his environmental advocacy and his secular humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters 22 Wilson was characterized by several titles during his career including the father of biodiversity 23 24 ant man 25 and Darwin s heir 26 27 28 In a PBS interview David Attenborough described Wilson as a magic name to many of us working in the natural world for two reasons First he is a towering example of a specialist a world authority Nobody in the world has ever known as much as Ed Wilson about ants But in addition to that intense knowledge and understanding he has the widest of pictures He sees the planet and the natural world that it contains in amazing detail but extraordinary coherence 29 Disagreement with Richard Dawkins edit Although Dawkins defended Wilson during the so called sociobiology debate 30 a disagreement between them arose over the theory of evolution 9 31 The disagreement began in 2012 when Dawkins wrote a critical review of Wilson s book The Social Conquest of Earth in Prospect Magazine 9 In the review Dawkins criticized Wilson for rejecting kin selection and for supporting group selection labeling it bland and unfocused and he wrote that the book s theoretical errors were important pervasive and integral to its thesis in a way that renders it impossible to recommend 32 33 Wilson responded in the same magazine and wrote that Dawkins made little connection to the part he criticizes and accused him of engaging in rhetoric 31 In 2014 Wilson said in an interview There is no dispute between me and Richard Dawkins and there never has been because he s a journalist and journalists are people that report what the scientists have found and the arguments I ve had have actually been with scientists doing research 31 Dawkins responded in a tweet I greatly admire EO Wilson amp his huge contributions to entomology ecology biogeography conservation etc He s just wrong on kin selection and later added Anybody who thinks I m a journalist who reports what other scientists think is invited to read The Extended Phenotype 31 Biologist Jerry Coyne wrote that Wilson s remarks were unfair inaccurate and uncharitable 34 In 2021 in an obituary to Wilson Dawkins stated that their dispute was purely scientific 35 Dawkins wrote that he stands by his critical review and doesn t regret its outspoken tone but noted that he also stood by his profound admiration for Professor Wilson and his life work 35 Support of J Philippe Rushton edit Prior to Wilson s death his personal correspondences were donated to the Library of Congress at the library s request 36 Following his death several articles were published discussing the discrepancy between Wilson s legacy as a champion of biogeography and conservation biology and his support of scientific racist pseudoscientist J Philippe Rushton over several years Rushton was a controversial psychologist at the University of Western Ontario who later headed the Pioneer Fund 36 37 38 From the late 1980s to the early 1990s Wilson wrote several emails to Rushton s colleagues defending Rushton s work in the face of widespread criticism for scholarly misconduct misrepresentation of data and confirmation bias all of which were allegedly used by Rushton to support his personal ideas on race 36 Wilson also sponsored an article written by Rushton in PNAS 39 and during the review process Wilson intentionally sought out reviewers for the article who he believed would likely already agree with its premise 36 Wilson kept his support of Rushton s racist ideologies behind the scenes so as to not draw too much attention to himself or tarnish his own reputation 40 Wilson responded to another request from Rushton to sponsor a second PNAS article with the following You have my support in many ways but for me to sponsor an article on racial differences in the PNAS would be counterproductive for both of us Wilson also remarked that the reason Rushton s ideologies were not more widely supported is because of the fear of being called racist which is virtually a death sentence in American academia if taken seriously I admit that I myself have tended to avoid the subject of Rushton s work out of fear 36 In 2022 the E O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation issued a statement rejecting Wilson s support of Rushton and racism on behalf of the board of directors and staff 41 Work editSociobiology The New Synthesis 1975 edit Main article Sociobiology The New Synthesis nbsp Wilson at the Peabody Museum of Natural History 2007Wilson used sociobiology and evolutionary principles to explain the behavior of social insects and then to understand the social behavior of other animals including humans thus establishing sociobiology as a new scientific field 42 He argued that all animal behavior including that of humans is the product of heredity environmental stimuli and past experiences and that free will is an illusion He referred to the biological basis of behavior as the genetic leash 43 127 128 The sociobiological view is that all animal social behavior is governed by epigenetic rules worked out by the laws of evolution This theory and research proved to be seminal controversial and influential 44 Wilson argued that the unit of selection is a gene the basic element of heredity The target of selection is normally the individual who carries an ensemble of genes of certain kinds With regard to the use of kin selection in explaining the behavior of eusocial insects the new view that I m proposing is that it was group selection all along an idea first roughly formulated by Darwin 45 Sociobiological research was at the time particularly controversial with regard to its application to humans 46 The theory established a scientific argument for rejecting the common doctrine of tabula rasa which holds that human beings are born without any innate mental content and that culture functions to increase human knowledge and aid in survival and success 47 Reception and controversy edit Sociobiology The New Synthesis was initially met with praise by most biologists 7 8 After substantial criticism of the book was launched by the Sociobiology Study Group associated with the organization Science for the People a major controversy known as the sociobiology debate ensued 7 8 and Wilson was accused of racism misogyny and support for eugenics 48 Several of Wilson s colleagues at Harvard 49 such as Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould both members of the Group were strongly opposed Both focused their criticism mostly on Wilson s sociobiological writings 50 Gould Lewontin and other members wrote Against Sociobiology in an open letter criticizing Wilson s deterministic view of human society and human action 51 Other public lectures reading groups and press releases were organized criticizing Wilson s work In response Wilson produced a discussion article entitled Academic Vigilantism and the Political Significance of Sociobiology in BioScience 52 53 In February 1978 while participating in a discussion on sociobiology at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Wilson was surrounded chanted at and doused with water a by members of the International Committee Against Racism who accused Wilson of advocating racism and genetic determinism Steven Jay Gould who was present at the event and Science for the People which had previously protested Wilson condemned the attack 58 55 Philosopher Mary Midgley encountered Sociobiology in the process of writing Beast and Man 1979 59 and significantly rewrote the book to offer a critique of Wilson s views Midgley praised the book for the study of animal behavior clarity scholarship and encyclopedic scope but extensively critiqued Wilson for conceptual confusion scientism and anthropomorphism of genetics 60 On Human Nature 1978 edit Wilson wrote in his 1978 book On Human Nature The evolutionary epic is probably the best myth we will ever have 61 Wilson s fame prompted use of the morphed phrase epic of evolution 22 The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 62 The Ants 1990 edit Wilson along with Bert Holldobler carried out a systematic study of ants and ant behavior 63 culminating in the 1990 encyclopedic work The Ants Because much self sacrificing behavior on the part of individual ants can be explained on the basis of their genetic interests in the survival of the sisters with whom they share 75 of their genes though the actual case is some species queens mate with multiple males and therefore some workers in a colony would only be 25 related Wilson argued for a sociobiological explanation for all social behavior on the model of the behavior of the social insects Wilson said in reference to ants that Karl Marx was right socialism works it is just that he had the wrong species 64 He asserted that individual ants and other eusocial species were able to reach higher Darwinian fitness putting the needs of the colony above their own needs as individuals because they lack reproductive independence individual ants cannot reproduce without a queen so they can only increase their fitness by working to enhance the fitness of the colony as a whole Humans however do possess reproductive independence and so individual humans enjoy their maximum level of Darwinian fitness by looking after their own survival and having their own offspring 65 Consilience 1998 edit In his 1998 book Consilience The Unity of Knowledge Wilson discussed methods that have been used to unite the sciences and might be able to unite the sciences with the humanities He argued that knowledge is a single unified thing not divided between science and humanistic inquiry 66 Wilson used the term consilience to describe the synthesis of knowledge from different specialized fields of human endeavor He defined human nature as a collection of epigenetic rules the genetic patterns of mental development He argued that culture and rituals are products not parts of human nature He said art is not part of human nature but our appreciation of art is He suggested that concepts such as art appreciation fear of snakes or the incest taboo Westermarck effect could be studied by scientific methods of the natural sciences and be part of interdisciplinary research Spiritual and political beliefs editScientific humanism edit Wilson coined the phrase scientific humanism as the only worldview compatible with science s growing knowledge of the real world and the laws of nature 67 Wilson argued that it is best suited to improve the human condition In 2003 he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto 68 God and religion edit On the question of God Wilson described his position as provisional deism 69 and explicitly denied the label of atheist preferring agnostic 70 He explained his faith as a trajectory away from traditional beliefs I drifted away from the church not definitively agnostic or atheistic just Baptist amp Christian no more 43 Wilson argued that belief in God and the rituals of religion are products of evolution 71 He argued that they should not be rejected or dismissed but further investigated by science to better understand their significance to human nature In his book The Creation Wilson wrote that scientists ought to offer the hand of friendship to religious leaders and build an alliance with them stating that Science and religion are two of the most potent forces on Earth and they should come together to save the creation 72 Wilson made an appeal to the religious community on the lecture circuit at Midland College Texas for example and that the appeal received a massive reply that a covenant had been written and that a partnership will work to a substantial degree as time goes on 73 In a New Scientist interview published on January 21 2015 however Wilson said that religious faith is dragging us down and I would say that for the sake of human progress the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish to the point of eliminating religious faiths But certainly not eliminating the natural yearnings of our species or the asking of these great questions 74 Ecology edit Wilson said that if he could start his life over he would work in microbial ecology when discussing the reinvigoration of his original fields of study since the 1960s 75 He studied the mass extinctions of the 20th century and their relationship to modern society and identifying mass extinction as the greatest threat to Earth s future 76 In 1998 argued for an ecological approach at the Capitol Now when you cut a forest an ancient forest in particular you are not just removing a lot of big trees and a few birds fluttering around in the canopy You are drastically imperiling a vast array of species within a few square miles of you The number of these species may go to tens of thousands Many of them are still unknown to science and science has not yet discovered the key role undoubtedly played in the maintenance of that ecosystem as in the case of fungi microorganisms and many of the insects 77 From the late 1970s Wilson was actively involved in the global conservation of biodiversity contributing and promoting research In 1984 he published Biophilia a work that explored the evolutionary and psychological basis of humanity s attraction to the natural environment This work introduced the word biophilia which influenced the shaping of modern conservation ethics In 1988 Wilson edited the BioDiversity volume based on the proceedings of the first US national conference on the subject which also introduced the term biodiversity into the language This work was very influential in creating the modern field of biodiversity studies 78 In 2011 Wilson led scientific expeditions to the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and the archipelagos of Vanuatu and New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Wilson was part of the international conservation movement as a consultant to Columbia University s Earth Institute as a director of the American Museum of Natural History Conservation International The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund 16 Understanding the scale of the extinction crisis led him to advocate for forest protection 77 including the Act to Save America s Forests first introduced in 1998 and reintroduced in 2008 but never passed 79 The Forests Now Declaration called for new markets based mechanisms to protect tropical forests 80 Wilson once said destroying a rainforest for economic gain was like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal 81 In 2014 Wilson called for setting aside 50 of Earth s surface for other species to thrive in as the only possible strategy to solve the extinction crisis The idea became the basis for his book Half Earth 2016 and for the Half Earth Project of the E O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation 82 83 Wilson s influence regarding ecology through popular science was discussed by Alan G Gross in The Scientific Sublime 2018 84 Wilson was instrumental in launching the Encyclopedia of Life EOL 85 initiative with the goal of creating a global database to include information on the 1 9 million species recognized by science Currently it includes information on practically all known species This open and searchable digital repository for organism traits measurements interactions and other data has more than 300 international partners and countless scientists providing global users access to knowledge of life on Earth For his part Wilson discovered and described more than 400 species of ants 86 87 Retirement and death editIn 1996 Wilson officially retired from Harvard University where he continued to hold the positions of Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology 88 He fully retired from Harvard in 2002 at age 73 After stepping down he published more than a dozen books including a digital biology textbook for the iPad 10 89 He founded the E O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation which finances the PEN E O Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and is an independent foundation at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University Wilson became a special lecturer at Duke University as part of the agreement 90 Wilson and his wife Irene resided in Lexington Massachusetts 16 He had a daughter Catherine 81 He was preceded in death by his wife on August 7 2021 and died in nearby Burlington on December 26 2021 at the age of 92 10 89 Awards and honors edit nbsp Wilson at a fireside chat during which he received the Addison Emery Verrill Medal in 2007 nbsp Wilson addresses the audience at the dedication of the Biophilia Center named for him at Nokuse Plantation in Walton County Florida Wilson s scientific and conservation honors include Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected 1959 91 Member of the National Academy of Sciences elected 1969 92 Member of the American Philosophical Society elected 1976 93 U S National Medal of Science 1977 17 Leidy Award 1979 from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 94 Pulitzer Prize for On Human Nature 1979 95 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement 1984 17 ECI Prize International Ecology Institute terrestrial ecology 1987 96 Honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Mathematics and Science at Uppsala University Sweden 1987 97 Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award 1988 98 His books The Insect Societies and Sociobiology The New Synthesis were honored with the Science Citation Classic award by the Institute for Scientific Information 99 Crafoord Prize 1990 a prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 100 Pulitzer Prize for The Ants with Bert Holldobler 1991 101 International Prize for Biology 1993 17 Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science 1994 102 The National Audubon Society s Audubon Medal 1995 17 Time magazine s 25 Most Influential People in America 1995 101 Certificate of Distinction International Congresses of Entomology Florence Italy 1996 103 Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences of the American Philosophical Society 1998 104 American Humanist Association s 1999 Humanist of the Year 101 Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science 2000 105 Nierenberg Prize 2001 17 Distinguished Eagle Scout Award 2004 106 Dauphin Island Sea Lab christened one of its research vessel the R V E O Wilson 107 Linnean Tercentenary Silver Medal 2006 108 Addison Emery Verrill Medal from the Peabody Museum of Natural History 2007 109 TED Prize 2007 110 given yearly to honor a maximum of three individuals who have shown that they can in some way positively impact life on this planet XIX Premi Internacional Catalunya 2007 111 E O Wilson Biophilia Center 112 on Nokuse Plantation in Walton County Florida 2009 video 113 The Explorers Club Medal 2009 114 2010 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology Category 115 Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture 2010 116 2010 Heartland Prize for fiction for his first novel Anthill A Novel 117 EarthSky Science Communicator of the Year 2010 118 International Cosmos Prize 2012 119 Kew International Medal 2014 1 Doctor of Science honoris causa from the American Museum of Natural History 2014 120 2016 Harper Lee Award 121 122 Commemoration in the species epithet of Myrmoderus eowilsoni 2018 123 Commemoration in the species epithet of Miniopterus wilsoni 2020 124 Main works editBrown W L Wilson E O 1956 Character displacement Systematic Zoology 5 2 49 64 doi 10 2307 2411924 JSTOR 2411924 coauthored with William Brown Jr paper honored in 1986 as a Science Citation Classic i e as one of the most frequently cited scientific papers of all time 125 The Theory of Island Biogeography 1967 Princeton University Press 2001 reprint ISBN 0 691 08836 5 with Robert H MacArthur The Insect Societies 1971 Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 45490 1 Sociobiology The New Synthesis 1975 Harvard University Press Twenty fifth Anniversary Edition 2000 ISBN 0 674 00089 7 On Human Nature 1979 Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 01638 6 winner of the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction Genes Mind and Culture The Coevolutionary Process 1981 Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 34475 8 Promethean Fire Reflections on the Origin of Mind 1983 Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 71445 8 Biophilia 1984 Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 07441 6 Success and Dominance in Ecosystems The Case of the Social Insects 1990 Inter Research ISSN 0932 2205 The Ants 1990 Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 04075 9 Winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize with Bert Holldobler The Diversity of Life 1992 Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 21298 3 The Diversity of Life Special Edition ISBN 0 674 21299 1 The Biophilia Hypothesis 1993 Shearwater Books ISBN 1 55963 148 1 with Stephen R Kellert Journey to the Ants A Story of Scientific Exploration 1994 Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 48525 4 with Bert Holldobler Naturalist 1994 Shearwater Books ISBN 1 55963 288 7 In Search of Nature 1996 Shearwater Books ISBN 1 55963 215 1 with Laura Simonds Southworth Consilience The Unity of Knowledge 1998 Knopf ISBN 0 679 45077 7 The Future of Life 2002 Knopf ISBN 0 679 45078 5 Pheidole in the New World A Dominant Hyperdiverse Ant Genus 2003 Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 00293 8 The Creation An Appeal to Save Life on Earth September 2006 W W Norton amp Company Inc ISBN 978 0 393 06217 5 Nature Revealed Selected Writings 1949 2006 ISBN 0 8018 8329 6 The Superorganism The Beauty Elegance and Strangeness of Insect Societies 2009 W W Norton amp Company Inc ISBN 978 0 393 06704 0 with Bert Holldobler Anthill A Novel April 2010 W W Norton amp Company Inc ISBN 978 0 393 07119 1 Kingdom of Ants Jose Celestino Mutis and the Dawn of Natural History in the New World 2010 Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore with Jose Maria Gomez Duran ISBN 0 8018 9785 8 The Leafcutter Ants Civilization by Instinct 2011 W W Norton amp Company Inc ISBN 978 0 393 33868 3 with Bert Holldobler The Social Conquest of Earth 2012 Liveright Publishing Corporation New York ISBN 0 87140 363 3 Letters to a Young Scientist 2014 Liveright ISBN 0 87140 385 4 A Window on Eternity A Biologist s Walk Through Gorongosa National Park 2014 Simon amp Schuster ISBN 1 4767 4741 5 The Meaning of Human Existence 2014 Liveright ISBN 0 87140 100 2 Half Earth 2016 Liveright ISBN 978 1 63149 082 8 The Origins of Creativity 2017 Liveright ISBN 978 1 63149 318 8 Genesis The Deep Origin of Societies 2019 Liveright ISBN 1 63149 554 2 Tales from the Ant World 2020 Liveright ISBN 978 1 63149 556 4 126 127 Naturalist A Graphic Adaptation November 10 2020 Island Press ISBN 978 1 61091 958 6 128 Edited works edit From So Simple a Beginning Darwin s Four Great Books edited with introductions by Edward O Wilson 2005 W W Norton ISBN 0 393 06134 5References edit While primary and eyewitness accounts agree that the phrase Racist Wilson you can t hide we charge you with genocide was chanted and that water was poured on Wilson s head they disagree on whether a cup 54 55 or a pitcher jug 56 57 was used a b Ethiopia s Prof Sebsebe Demissew awarded prestigious Kew International Medal Kew kew org Archived from the original on May 17 2018 Retrieved May 16 2018 E O Wilson advocates biodiversity preservation Duke Chronicle February 12 2014 Archived from the original on July 25 2015 Retrieved April 23 2014 Natural Connections gt Edward Wilson Bio Archived from the original on October 2 2008 Retrieved December 6 2015 E O Wilson biography AlabamaLiteraryMap org Archived from the original on December 8 2010 Retrieved April 23 2014 a b Cowles Gregory Print amp E Books The New York Times Hoffman Jascha March 25 2013 Advice to Researchers and Reanimating Dead Mice The New York Times Archived from the original on January 1 2022 Retrieved November 21 2020 a b c Segerstrale Ullica March 1 1986 Colleagues in conflict An in vivo analysis of the sociobiology controversy Biology and Philosophy 1 1 53 87 doi 10 1007 BF00127089 ISSN 1572 8404 S2CID 170270819 In October 1975 a group called the Sociobiology Study Group composed of professors students researchers and others from the Boston area launched an attack on Wilson s Sociobiology which by then had received widespread publicity and positive reviews a b c Perry George Mace Ruth June 1 2010 The lack of acceptance of evolutionary approaches to human behaviour Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 8 2 105 125 doi 10 1556 jep 8 2010 2 2 ISSN 1789 2082 Sociobiology was initially well received by most biologists who appreciated the detailed empirical and theoretical work on animal social behaviour However a huge controversy throughout the 1970s and 80s known as the sociobiology debate soon followed a b c Thorpe Vanessa June 23 2012 Richard Dawkins in furious row with EO Wilson over theory of evolution The Observer ISSN 0029 7712 Retrieved April 13 2023 a b c Zimmer Carl December 27 2021 E O Wilson a pioneer of evolutionary biology dies at 92 The New York Times Retrieved December 27 2021 Wilson Edward O 2006 Naturalist Washington D C p 52 ISBN 1 59726 088 6 OCLC 69669557 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link a b Olsen Erik Gorman James Stein Robin December 27 2021 Video The Last Word E O Wilson The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved January 17 2022 On the Accidental Career of E O Wilson Literary Hub March 26 2021 Retrieved January 27 2023 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wilson Edward O 2006 Naturalist Washington D C Island Press for Shearwater Books ISBN 1 59726 088 6 OCLC 69669557 Buhs Joshua Blu 2004 The Fire Ant Wars Nature Science and Public Policy in Twentieth Century America University of Chicago Press pp 32 34 ISBN 978 0 226 07981 3 a b c d e f g h Edward O Wilson biography and interview achievement org American Academy of Achievement a b c d e f Fuller Amy Elisabeth ed 2011 Edward O Wilson Contemporary Authors Vol 211 Gale pp 432 437 ISBN 978 1 4144 6167 0 ISSN 0275 7176 OCLC 755975998 Vandenbergh John ed December 2 2012 1983 Pheromones and Reproduction in Mammals Elsevier p 254 doi 10 1016 B978 0 12 710780 6 X5001 8 ISBN 978 0 323 15651 6 Chambers Concise Dictionary of Scientists Chambers 1989 pp 405 406 ISBN 1 85296 354 9 OCLC 20820593 Muir Hazel ed 1994 Larousse Dictionary of Scientists Editions Larousse p 555 ISBN 0 7523 0002 4 OCLC 30935778 a b Moore Randy Decker Mark D 2008 Edward O Wilson b 1929 More than Darwin An Encyclopedia of the People and Places of the Evolution Creationism Controversy Greenwood Publishing Group pp 371 373 ISBN 978 0 313 34155 7 OCLC 177023758 a b Novacek Michael J 2001 Lifetime achievement E O Wilson CNN Archived from the original on October 14 2006 Retrieved November 8 2006 Becker Michael April 9 2009 MSU presents Presidential Medal to famed scientist Edward O Wilson MSU News Retrieved May 9 2014 reports wire December 27 2021 Father of biodiversity E O Wilson dies at 92 oregonlive Retrieved January 27 2023 Georgina Ferry January 6 2022 Edward O Wilson obituary US biologist and champion of biodiversity who specialised in the study of ants and was regarded as a modern day Charles Darwin The Guardian Retrieved February 8 2022 Leading American naturalist EO Wilson dubbed Darwin s heir dies at 92 BBC News December 27 2021 Retrieved December 7 2022 E O Wilson Darwin s natural heir dies at age 92 National Geographic December 27 2021 Archived from the original on December 27 2021 Retrieved December 7 2022 E O Wilson known as the modern day Darwin dies at 92 Mintlounge December 27 2021 Retrieved January 27 2023 NOVA Transcripts Lord of the Ants PBS pbs org Retrieved January 30 2023 Forrest David V 1999 Edward O Wilson s Consilience Can Our Knowledge Be Unified Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis 27 3 371 386 doi 10 1521 jaap 1 1999 27 3 371 ISSN 0090 3604 PMID 10615636 a b c d Johnston Chris November 7 2014 Biological warfare flares up again between EO Wilson and Richard Dawkins The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved April 13 2023 Dawkins Richard May 24 2012 The descent of Edward Wilson Prospect Retrieved April 13 2023 Connor Steve November 10 2014 What humans can and cannot learn from ants The Independent Retrieved April 13 2023 Coyne Jerry November 7 2014 The group selection dustup continues E O Wilson calls Richard Dawkins a journalist Why Evolution Is True Retrieved April 13 2023 a b Dawkins Richard Edward O Wilson My Obituary Tribute to him richarddawkins com Retrieved April 13 2023 a b c d e Farina Stacy Gibbons Matthew February 1 2022 The Last Refuge of Scoundrels New Evidence of E O Wilson s Intimacy with Scientific Racism Science for the People Retrieved February 8 2022 McLemore Monica R The Complicated Legacy of E O Wilson Scientific American Retrieved February 17 2022 Borrello Mark Sepkoski David February 5 2022 Ideology as Biology The New York Review of Books Retrieved February 8 2022 registration required Rushton J P Littlefield C H Lumsden C J October 1 1986 Gene culture coevolution of complex social behavior human altruism and mate choice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 83 19 7340 7343 Bibcode 1986PNAS 83 7340R doi 10 1073 pnas 83 19 7340 ISSN 0027 8424 PMC 386712 PMID 3463973 New Evidence Revives Old Questions About E O Wilson and Race Undark Magazine February 16 2022 Retrieved February 17 2022 E O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation A Statement on E O Wilson and the Rushton Correspondence April 18 2022 Retrieved June 13 2023 The Foundation s statement was first issued in February 2022 prior to a full investigation It was updated in April 2022 reaffirming the original statement after reviewing the correspondence Neuman Scott December 27 2021 E O Wilson famed entomologist and pioneer in the field of sociobiology dies at 92 National Public Radio Retrieved December 28 2021 a b E O Wilson Consilience The Unity of Knowledge New York Knopf 1998 Wolfe Tom 2012 Sorry But Your Soul Just Died Hooking Up London Vintage Books pp 77ff ISBN 978 0 09 956588 8 OCLC 779244291 Discover Interview E O Wilson Discover Retrieved December 6 2015 Rensberger Boyce November 9 1975 The Basic Elements of the Arguments Are Not New The New York Times Restak Richard M April 24 1983 Is Our Culture In Our Genes The New York Times Retrieved January 2 2018 Douglas Ed February 17 2001 Darwin s natural heir The Guardian London Grafen Alan Ridley Mark 2006 Richard Dawkins How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think New York City Oxford University Press p 75 ISBN 0 19 929116 0 Jumonville Neil 2002 The Cultural Politics of the Sociobiology Debate Journal of the History of Biology 35 3 569 593 doi 10 1023 A 1021190227056 ISSN 0022 5010 JSTOR 4331761 S2CID 83077910 Schreier Herb Rosenthal Miriam Pyeritz Reed Miller Larry Madansky Chuck Lewontin Richard C Leeds Anthony Inouye Hiroshi Hubbard Ruth Against Sociobiology The New York Review of Books ISSN 0028 7504 Retrieved December 28 2021 Wilson Edward O March 1976 Dialogue The Response Academic Vigilantism and the Political Significance of Sociobiology BioScience University of California Press 26 3 183 187 190 doi 10 2307 1297247 JSTOR 1297247 Wooldridge Adrian 1995 Equality and human nature Measuring the Mind Education and Psychology in England c 1860 c 1990 Cambridge University Press pp 369 373 ISBN 978 0 521 39515 1 Hull David L October 12 2000 Activism scientists and sociobiology Nature 407 6805 673 674 Bibcode 2000Natur 407 673H doi 10 1038 35037645 ISSN 0028 0836 S2CID 142764821 a b Gould Stephen Jay 2003 The Hedgehog the Fox and the Magister s Pox Mending the Gap Between Science and the Humanities New York Harmony Books p 204 ISBN 978 0 609 60140 2 Water Poured on Harvard Professor s Head San Francisco Chronicle February 16 1978 p 24 Segerstrale Ullica 2000 Defenders of the Truth The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond Oxford University Press p 23 ISBN 0 19 850505 1 Cooke Robert February 16 1978 Protesters douse Harvard speaker The Boston Globe p 14 Midgley Mary 1995 Beast and Man The Roots of Human Nature Rev ed London u a Routledge p xli ISBN 0 415 12740 8 Midgley Mary 1995 Beast and man the roots of human nature Rev ed London u a Routledge p xl ISBN 0 415 12740 8 Wilson 1979 On Human Nature p 21 Walsh Bryan August 17 2011 All Time 100 Nonfiction Books Time Retrieved January 2 2018 Nicholas Wade July 15 2008 Taking a Cue From Ants on Evolution of Humans The New York Times Wade Nicholas May 12 1998 Scientist at Work Edward O Wilson From Ants to Ethics A Biologist Dreams Of Unity of Knowledge The New York Times Retrieved May 1 2010 Wilson Edward O March 27 1997 Karl Marx was right socialism works Interview Harvard University Gillespie Charles C 1998 E O Wilson s Consilience A Noble Unifying Vision Grandly Expressed American Scientist 86 3 280 283 ISSN 0003 0996 JSTOR 27857028 Wilson Edward O November 1 2005 Intelligent Evolution Harvard Magazine Retrieved February 4 2020 Notable Signers Humanism and Its Aspirations American Humanist Association Archived from the original on October 5 2012 Retrieved October 6 2012 The Creation page needed Sarchet Penny February 1 2015 Why Do We Ignore Warnings About Earth s Future Slate In fact I m not an atheist I would even say I m agnostic Human Nature page needed Naturalist E O Wilson is optimistic Harvard Gazette June 15 2006 Archived from the original on March 24 2008 Scientist says there is hope to save planet Archived January 29 2013 at archive today mywesttexas com September 18 2009 Penny Sarchet January 21 2015 E O Wilson Religious faith is dragging us down New Scientist Retrieved December 6 2015 Edward O Wilson 2008 Lord of the Ants documentary film Nova television WGBH Retrieved March 1 2009 Ruse Michael July 20 1998 E O Wilson Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved December 7 2022 a b Wilson Edward Osborne April 28 1998 Slide show saveamericasforests org p 2 Retrieved November 13 2008 E O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation E O Wilson Retrieved December 27 2020 Congress The Act to Save America s Forests Saveamericasforests org Retrieved December 6 2015 The Forests NOW Declaration Global Canopy Programme globalcanopy org Archived from the original on January 21 2018 Retrieved January 20 2018 a b Edward O Wilson naturalist known as a modern day Darwin dies aged 92 the Guardian Reuters December 27 2021 Retrieved December 28 2021 Alberts Elizabeth Claire October 6 2021 In Half Earth Project a full on bid to get countries to protect biodiversity Mongabay Environmental News Retrieved August 10 2022 Hiss Tony 2014 Can the World Really Set Aside Half of the Planet for Wildlife Science Smithsonian Smithsonianmag com Retrieved December 6 2015 Gross Alan G August 2 2018 E O Wilson The Biophilic Sublime The Scientific Sublime Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 oso 9780190637774 003 0017 ISBN 978 0 19 063777 4 E O Wilson founds the Encyclopedia of Life www ted com Retrieved December 27 2020 E O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation The Perfect Gift for E O Wilson Archived from the original on March 3 2021 Retrieved December 27 2020 Evolving into community The Christian Century Retrieved December 27 2020 The National Medal of Science 50th Anniversary National Science Foundation www nsf gov Retrieved March 20 2022 a b Telegraph Obituaries December 27 2021 E O Wilson biologist whose work on ants led him to great discoveries about the whole living environment obituary The Daily Telegraph Retrieved February 8 2022 Father of sociobiology to teach at Nicholas School Post Retirement Duke University December 2013 Archived from the original on July 25 2015 Retrieved December 6 2013 Edward O Wilson American Academy of Arts amp Sciences Retrieved June 12 2020 Edward Wilson www nasonline org Retrieved June 12 2020 APS Member History search amphilsoc org Retrieved July 25 2022 The Four Awards Bestowed by The Academy of Natural Sciences and Their Recipients Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 156 1 403 404 June 2007 doi 10 1635 0097 3157 2007 156 403 TFABBT 2 0 CO 2 S2CID 198160356 Legendary Biologist and Pulitzer Prize Winner E O Wilson Visits UA as Scholar in Residence Arts amp Sciences www as ua edu ECI Prize Laureates and Their Major Scientific Achievements Inter Research Science Publisher Retrieved December 28 2021 Honorary doctorates Uppsala University Sweden www uu se June 9 2023 Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement www achievement org American Academy of Achievement Search Author Index Citation Classic Commentaries University of Pennsylvania Crafoord Prize www crafoordprize se a b c Sullivan Patricia December 27 2021 Edward O Wilson Harvard naturalist often cited as heir to Darwin dies at 92 The Washington Post Carl Sagan Award Council of Scientific Society Presidents Archived from the original on November 12 2014 Retrieved December 28 2021 History of International Congresses of Entomology In press Editors James Ridsdill Smith Phyllis Weinbaum Max Whitten and May Berenbaum Publisher Entomological Society of America Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences Recipients American Philosophical Society Retrieved November 27 2011 Lewis Thomas Prize Recipients The Rockefeller University Retrieved December 28 2021 Council Montana January 29 2019 In Focus 6 Notable Eagle Scouts Montana Council Retrieved December 29 2023 Research Vessels Dauphin Island Sea Lab Archived from the original on December 28 2021 Retrieved December 28 2021 The Linnean Tercentenary Medal The Linnean Society Retrieved December 28 2021 Yale honors E O Wilson with Verrill Medal The Harvard Gazette October 17 2007 Retrieved December 27 2021 1 Archived November 11 2006 at the Wayback Machine Previous winners Ministry of the Presidency Retrieved January 29 2020 biophilia center Eowilsoncenter org Retrieved December 6 2015 E O Wilson Biophilia Center Vimeo The Explorers Medal The Explorers Club Retrieved December 28 2021 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards fbbva es Archived from the original on March 5 2016 Recipients of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture Thomas Jefferson Foundation Retrieved December 28 2021 Chicago Humanities Festival chicagohumanities org Archived from the original on November 5 2013 Retrieved February 4 2011 EarthSky Global Science Advisors select E O Wilson as 2010 Science Communicator of the Year EarthSky January 11 2011 Retrieved December 28 2021 The Prizewinner 2012 Expo 90 Foundation Retrieved September 18 2019 Museum Celebrates Second Commencement Ceremony American Museum of Natural History October 28 2014 E O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation Harper Lee Award Archived from the original on June 25 2021 Retrieved June 25 2021 Whitley Carla Jean December 10 2015 E O Wilson biologist and author to receive Harper Lee Award AL com Moncrieff A E Johnson O Lane D F Beck J R Angulo F Fagan J 2018 A new species of antbird Passeriformes Thamnophilidae from the Cordillera Azul San Martin Peru Auk 135 1 114 126 doi 10 1642 AUK 17 97 1 Nhacote Luis August 2020 Moz24h Moz24Horas Mocambique Moz24h Moz24Horas Mocambique in Portuguese Archived from the original on December 28 2021 Retrieved August 19 2020 William L Brown Jr Obituary Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Archived from the original on July 25 2015 Retrieved October 22 2014 Wilson Edward O 2020 Tales from the ant world First ed New York N Y ISBN 978 1 63149 556 4 OCLC 1120085214 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Tales from the Ant World is a fascinating journey post gazette com November 16 2020 Retrieved November 26 2020 Wilson Edward O Ottaviani Jim November 10 2020 Naturalist A Graphic Adaptation Island Press ISBN 978 1 61091 958 6 Sources edit Books edit Wilson E O 1995 Naturalist Warner Books ISBN 1 59726 088 6 Rhodes Richard 2021 E O Wilson A Life in Nature Knopf Doubleday ISBN 9780385545563 Journals edit Holldobler Bert January 21 2022 Edward Osborne Wilson Naturalist 1929 2021 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119 5 Bibcode 2022PNAS 11900201H doi 10 1073 pnas 2200201119 PMC 8812546 PMID 35064007 Simberloff Daniel November 2022 Edward O Wilson 1929 2021 It All Started with Ants The American Naturalist 200 5 621 737 doi 10 1086 721257 PMID 36260849 S2CID 252995823 Newspapers edit Rothstein Edward May 2 1998 Now a Warm Welcome Instead of a Cold Bath The New York Times Retrieved January 31 2023 External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to E O Wilson nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to E O Wilson Curriculum vitae E O Wilson Foundation Dawkins Richard May 24 2012 The Descent of Edward Wilson Prospect Archived from the original on October 19 2012 Review of The Social Conquest of Earth Appearances on C SPAN E O Wilson at TED nbsp E O Wilson Biophilia Center Works by or about E O Wilson at Internet Archive DISCOVER MAGAZINE TV series Ants With E O Wilson September 7 2014 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title E O Wilson amp oldid 1201149632, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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