Greg Althoff
Creative Director
- November 5, 2008 • 2:47 pm PST
- + responses
Edward O. Wilson, who is Harvard's Pellegrino University Professor
Emeritus, has built a legacy so elaborate that it's difficult to
identify which field of science he has most influenced. Some have
called him a modern-day Darwin. At his core, however, he is an
entomologist.
"… consider forming an alliance to do something that
science and religion, the most powerful social forces in the world, are
uniquely prepared to do: save the creation."
In the late 1950s, Wilson discovered pheromones as the basis of
chemical communication in ants. He identified 624 ant species in one
genus and named 337 of them (19 percent of all ant species in the
Western hemisphere). He's been recognized internationally for
contributions to science and the humanities and has received numerous
awards including the National Medal of Science and Japan's
International Prize for Biology. He's won two Pulitzers. And if Rachel
Carson is the mother of the modern-day environmental movement, Edward
O. Wilson is quite arguably its father.
I'm going to buy his book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, which
is about demonstrating that all knowledge is intrinsically linked, both
within the sciences and between science and the humanities. I mean this
guy sounds amazing right? And if you are like me, not savvy in
modern-day sciences, his essays and books are gonna blow your mind. I'm
also intrigued by the fact that he is somebody that might be remembered
in 100 years, but we have a chance to believe with him right here and
now. Makes me wonder how many other people in the world are like Edward?
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