Remembering E.O. Wilson

Years ago, I was on a college field trip to Boston.  We spent the morning at the Franklin Park Zoo before slipping across the river to Cambridge, where we toured the excellent Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.  We saw a lot of very cool things there, both in the darkened exhibit galleries and in the winding back rooms filled with off-exhibit specimens.  The biggest treat for many of us, however, came from a direction that none of us expected.

Our guide ushered us into a room at one point to go over the history of the museum, and even as he did so, I wondered why on earth we were standing where we were.  The room was just an office, so similar to those of our professors back at the university.  Why not meet in one of the exhibit halls, or an auditorium, where we'd have more room?  It wasn't until the end of his talk that, almost casually, he dropped the bombshell.  The office that we were standing in wasn't just any old office.  It was the office of Professor Edward Osborne (E.O.) Wilson.  Some of us squealed like fangirls.  I may have been one.  The only thing that would have made it more exciting is if the great man (who by then was already in his last 70's and a retired professor emeritus) had sauntered in the door and asked what we were all doing there.

E.O. Wilson, a Pioneer of Evolutionary Biology, Dies at 92

For those to whom the name is not familiar, E.O. Wilson was probably the most famous biologist of his age; what Stephen Hawking was to physics, he was to life sciences.  He has been referred to as the "Darwin of the 21st century," or various plays on that title, as well as the father of the fields of biodiversity and sociobiology.  After a childhood accident severely limited his vision, Wilson (already outdoorsy by nature) became very interested in the tiny insects which he could observe up close, becoming a world expert of ants.  But who would have thought that connections could be drawn between the social lives of ants and humans?  Wilson did, for one.  Like Darwin with his finches, Wilson's studies with ants led him to extrapolate and develop theories about how species exist in their environment and how they interplay with other species to create dynamic ecosystems of interdependent organisms.

Perhaps the concept that Wilson is best known for is his espousal of "biophilia."  Wilson suggested that, despite our cities and suburbs and technology, we humans have an innate desire, built into our genes, to seek connections with the natural world and other living things.  Accordingly, Wilson was a strong advocate for conservation of natural resources and saving biodiversity.  In one of his many books on the subject, The Creation, Wilson (himself religiously agnostic) writes an open letter to a hypothetical evangelical preacher, hoping to bridge the divide of religion and science to create a census for saving wildlife and wild places around the world.

Professor Wilson passed away yesterday at the age of 92.  He led a very long, full life - I hope that looking back on it, he drew satisfaction from all that he's done over the past several decades to advance our understanding of the natural world and give us increasingly better tools and ideas for how to protect it, both for ourselves and from ourselves.