{"id":61197,"date":"2021-12-31T09:03:35","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T14:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61197"},"modified":"2021-12-31T09:03:35","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T14:03:35","slug":"e-o-wilsons-lifelong-passion-for-ants-helped-him-teach-humans-about-how-to-live-sustainably-with-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61197","title":{"rendered":"E.O. Wilson\u2019s lifelong passion for ants helped him teach humans about how to live sustainably with nature"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n
\n

E.O. Wilson\u2019s lifelong passion for ants helped him teach humans about how to live sustainably with nature<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

E. O. Wilson was an extraordinary scholar in every sense of the word. Back in the 1980s, Milton Stetson, the chair of the biology department at the University of Delaware, told me that a scientist who makes a single seminal contribution to his or her field has been a success. By the time I met Edward O. Wilson<\/a>\u00a0in 1982, he had already made at least five such contributions to science.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson,\u00a0who died Dec. 26, 2021 at the age of 92<\/a>, discovered the\u00a0chemical means by which ants communicate<\/a>. He worked out the importance of habitat size and position within the landscape in\u00a0sustaining animal populations<\/a>. And he was the first to understand the evolutionary basis of\u00a0both animal and human societies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Each of his seminal contributions fundamentally changed the way scientists approached these disciplines, and explained why E.O. \u2013 as he was fondly known \u2013 was an academic god for many young scientists like me. This astonishing record of achievement may have been due to his phenomenal ability to piece together new ideas using information garnered from disparate fields of study.<\/p>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Big insights from small subjects<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1982 I cautiously sat down next to the great man during a break at a small conference on social insects. He turned, extended his hand and said, \u201cHi, I\u2019m Ed Wilson. I don\u2019t believe we\u2019ve met.\u201d Then we talked until it was time to get back to business.<\/p>\n

Three hours later I approached him again, this time without trepidation because surely now we were the best of friends. He turned, extended his hand, and said \u201cHi, I\u2019m Ed Wilson. I don\u2019t believe we\u2019ve met.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

E.O. Wilson\u2019s lifelong passion for ants helped him teach humans about how to live sustainably with nature E. O. Wilson was an extraordinary scholar in every sense of the word. Back in the 1980s, Milton Stetson, the chair of the biology department at the University of Delaware, told me that a scientist who makes a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32364,18809,234,8487],"class_list":["post-61197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-doug-tallamy","tag-e-o-wilson","tag-ecology","tag-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61198,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61197\/revisions\/61198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}