Edward O. Wilson has made major contributions to a number of fields, including the behavior and evolution of social insects, chemical communication, and the evolution of social behavior. His interest in living organisms, especially ants, stems back to his childhood and to his undergraduate studies in evolutionary biology at the University of Alabama. He received his Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University, where he is now Pellegrino University Research Professor and Honorary Curator in Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Among his many honors are the National Medal of Science, two Pulitzer Prizes (for On Human Nature, 1978, and The Ants, 1990, with Bert Hölldobler), and the Tyler Prize for environmental achievement. Other groundbreaking books include Consilience and Sociobiology.
The Bottleneck
We have entered the Century of the Environment, in which the immediate future is usefully conceived as a bottleneck: science and technology, combined with foresight and moral courage, must see us through it and out
Threats to Biodiversity
Habitat destruction, mostly in the tropics, is driving thousands of species each year to extinction. The consequences will be dire-unless the trend is reversed
Weaver Ants
These social insects use their own larvae as shuttles to weave leaves into large nests in the rain forests of Africa and Asia. Their behavior is coordinated by complex chemical stimuli
Slavery in Ants
Certain species of ants raid the nests of other species for ants to work in their own nest. Some raiding species have become so specialized that they are no longer capable of feeding themselves
Animal Communication
Animals ranging from insects to mammals communicate by means of chemicals, movements and sounds. Man also uses these modes of communication, but he adds his own unique kind of language
Pheromones
A pheromone is a substance secreted by an animal that influences the behavior of other animals of the same species. Recent studies indicate that such chemical communication is surprisingly common
The Fire Ant
An imported species of this insect has become a serious pest in the South. It is studied both to find means to control it and to learn how a species adapts itself to a new environment