“Competition is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals.”
E. O. Wilson (1929- )
An Alabama native, Wilson, blinded in one eye at age 7, took up the study of insects shortly thereafter and is today recognized as the world expert on ants. A Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Harvard for forty years, he has won the Pulitzer Prize twice for books illuminating his work for scientists and laypeople alike. His work on eusocial species, (ants, termites, wasps, etc.) lead to controversy when he applied his findings to humans, positing evolutionary and genetic causes for human behavior, such as religion, rather than strictly cultural influences. It was Wilson who coined the term “biodiversity” the protection of which he continues to advocate as necessary for our existence. His recent books, The Social Conquest of Earth and Letters to a Young Scientist are highly readable accounts synthesizing his decades of research in fields of inquiry not always closely related.
Greg Bover
Good Morning Gloucester 