Lord of the Ants

Every so often a giant emerges on the stage of science, someone who transcends the narrow boundaries of a particular line of research and alters our perspective on the world. E.O. Wilson was renowned for his scientific study of ants. His 1975 study concluded that evolutionary principles could explain social behavior throughout the animal kingdom, including in humans. Though sociobiology was a controversial new discipline at the time, today's science shows that genes do play a role in aspects of behavior.

Wilson realizes that the chemicals governing an ant’s behavior must have a genetic basis. Does this hold true for other animals, including humans? His answer, the 1975 book Sociobiology, unleashes a firestorm of controversy. As the controversy slowly dies down, Wilson turns his attention to a new crisis: the ongoing loss of biodiversity. In the Florida Keys, he undertakes a groundbreaking experiment that provides data critical to the new field of conservation biology.

Now in his sixth decade at Harvard, Wilson launches his Encyclopedia of Life and continues writing books and actively campaigning to protect what’s left of the world’s endangered ecosystems.

Excerpt from PBS Nature Documentary
Tags: Ants, animal sociology