{"id":153534,"date":"2014-04-15T16:22:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T20:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/gazette\/?p=153534"},"modified":"2024-02-20T16:53:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T21:53:06","slug":"search-until-you-find-a-passion-and-go-all-out-to-excel-in-its-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/search-until-you-find-a-passion-and-go-all-out-to-excel-in-its-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n
\"E.O.

Photos by Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tCampus & Community\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\t\u2018Search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression\u2019\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\tAlvin Powell\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tFor E.O. Wilson, wonders never cease\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Edward O. Wilson, pioneering biologist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and Harvard professor for more than four decades, died December 26 at age 92. In a 2014 interview with the Gazette, he looked back on his life and work. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward O. Wilson, the Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus<\/i>, was born in Alabama in June 1929. A boyhood immersed in nature and the world of insects provided an education he would build on through high school and at the University of Alabama, and then during graduate studies at Harvard, where he\u2019s been since receiving his Ph.D. in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson is probably best known for his groundbreaking insights on ants, but his research has extended deep into other realms of science, sometimes with provocative results. His theory of island biogeography, written with Robert MacArthur, examined how species rise and fall on isolated islands, both those surrounded by water and, more importantly for conservation today, habitat islands surrounded by different landscapes. His book on the biological roots of behavior, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d touched off an academic row in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson\u2019s honors include two Pulitzer Prizes \u2014 for  \u201cOn Human Nature\u201d and, with Bert H\u00f6lldobler, \u201cThe Ants\u201d \u2014 the National Medal of Science, in 1976, and the 1990 Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He retired from full-time scholarship and teaching in 1996, but has carried on with research and writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What guided you into the field of ant biology, and were there other options at the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There weren\u2019t many options growing up in Alabama and I wasn\u2019t even thinking that I would eventually have to choose a career. But I had chosen one just the same. I had become so passionate about nature and insects that I decided by my teens that I would become an entomologist. I thought probably what I\u2019d do is join the Department of Agriculture and become an extension entomologist and advise farmers. Basically, I was willing to do anything to allow me to devote myself to entomology. I also got a lot from the Boy Scouts. That\u2019s where I got my main education in an otherwise poor public school system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I arrived at the University of Alabama, I had just passed my 17th birthday. I found that the doors were open and the faculty there was very welcoming and supportive. They didn\u2019t get many people, back there in the \u201940s, who were interested in becoming an academic. Most of the biology concentrators were pre-med. I graduated shortly after my 20th birthday, then went on to get a master\u2019s degree, and then to the University of Tennessee \u2014 that was getting pretty far north for me \u2014 to join their doctoral program. I had a wonderful professor of botany named Jack Sharp. He was known nationally for his research on plants. In late 1950 or early 1951, he wrote from Knoxville to his friend Frank Carpenter, who was chairman of the Biology Department and professor of entomology, and said, \u201cThis kid does not belong here, he belongs at Harvard.\u201d He did me a tremendous service with that letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d already visited Harvard in the summer of 1950, mainly to see the ant collection and visit a graduate student working on ants with whom I\u2019d corresponded. I had made some added connection there and met one of the professors in the Biology Department. The result was that Harvard wrote me, saying that if I cared to apply, it\u2019s very likely I would get a teaching fellowship and be admitted. And I did just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spring of \u201953 I was overjoyed to receive a junior fellowship [of the Society of Fellows], and the ability to go anywhere in the world I wanted, with all expenses paid, to do anything I wished. The only oath asked of the new junior fellows at the dinner at Eliot House was that they do something extraordinary. What an incredible charge to give an ambitious young man or woman: \u201cWe don\u2019t care what you do, what field you go into as long as you accomplish something \u2014 as a junior fellow \u2014 extraordinary.\u201d I decided I would do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it about entomology that attracted you? Was it the ability to explore the outdoors or something about the insects themselves that drew you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have only one functional eye, my left eye, but it\u2019s very sharp. And I somehow focused on little things. I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did, and took an interest in them automatically. Even at the age of 9 in school in Washington, D.C., I was reading about insects <\/b>through all the National Geographics. And there was one article in 1934 entitled, \u201cStalking Ants: Savage and Civilized.\u201d It happened to be by the man [William M. Mann] who later became the director of the National Zoo, and he got his Ph.D. here at Harvard. It <\/b>just knocked me flat when I read about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though most of the species he depicted were found only in other countries, especially in the tropics, I was soon out watching ants, trying to find the ants he mentioned in the book and going to the national museum. I was <\/b>also developing a passion for butterflies. I had a net, which my stepmother made for me from a coat hanger, cheesecloth, and a broom handle. So I was off and running by the age of 10. I was trying to read books on entomology. They were over my head, of course, but I had the ambition to learn what I could when I could. And all through my teen years, as I was advancing up to Eagle Scout in Alabama, I was focusing on natural history, including ants and butterflies and snakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you ever give your selection of ants a second thought? Did you ever, in a discouraging time, ask, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I do something easy?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ants are easy. I had been collecting them all over the state of Alabama and elsewhere and identifying [them]. I had already, in high school, made friends with the very small number of ant experts in the United States, exchanging specimens and getting advice and so on. It seemed terribly easy to me from the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I wanted to do when I got to Harvard was get a much broader background. This was helped substantially by contacts in the Biology Department and also the Society of Fellows. I had the pleasure of having conversations with other junior fellows, who included people like Marvin Minsky and Noam Chomsky, and got to meet people like T.S. Eliot and Robert Oppenheimer. It was just amazing. You could talk with these exceptional people and grow in breadth and confidence. But the dream that kept returning was to go to the tropics and study the ants of the rainforest. I left almost as soon as I became a junior fellow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1953, I was off to Cuba and Mexico, a paradise for me of tropical forests inhabited by hundreds of kinds of ants. And then I came back and finished my Ph.D. I soon informed the chairman of the fellows, the historian Crane Brinton, that I was on my way to New Guinea, to all the other archipelagos of Melanesia, and I would try to cost the Society of Fellows as little as possible. And off I went. It was there that I collected ants and studied rainforests and thought about ecology and took long, sometimes solitary trips through the forests. I began to develop ideas about how ants had gotten into these distant places and how they\u2019d evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In later years I realized that what I was doing is what Germans call wanderjahr<\/i>, the <\/b>year of wandering. It is a German expression for young men who were expected to leave the village. They\u2019d mature and go off to another village to learn a trade. And this is what people like Darwin, Philip Darlington, here the curator of entomology, and Ernst Mayr had done. As young men, they were in the tropics soaking up all the raw information and experience of what the natural world is really like, and forming ideas about it. I came back in 1955, married, and was bursting with ideas about what I could do in science, using ants as my principal group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And did that trip lead specifically to any of your noted theories? Did the theory of island biogeography come from there?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That came straight from there. When I met Robert MacArthur in the late \u201950s, we were both young professors, deeply worried about the status of our field, which was ecology and evolution. It was a golden age of biology, but of molecular and cell biology. It looked as though ecology, systematics, and biogeography would just be relegated to third-line status as far as universities like Harvard were concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacArthur and I hit it off very quickly. He had mathematical modeling ability and I was already publishing substantial papers on Asian and Pacific ants. We put our heads together and \u2026 developed the theory of island biogeography. It was immediately successful, because it hooked up ecology to conservation biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world consists of islands, the reserves and the parks and the remnant patches of forest on the mountainside are islands. We saw the [theory as a] way to deal with the fate of species that were essentially confined to what we call habitat islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As forests have become more fragmented and habitats have become smaller, has the theory become more relevant?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, vastly more relevant. It\u2019s one of the foundation pieces of conservation biology: how to understand why there are a certain number of species in a forest, maybe a forest on an island or maybe a fragment of forest on the continental coast. How to analyze it, find out what\u2019s happening, to look into particulars like how often species reach the island, how fast they\u2019re likely to be going extinct, how fast they might be evolving to create new species. All those factors are seen as basic in evaluating the status and the value of a particular reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly you\u2019ve made several seminal contributions to science \u2014 is there one that you feel proudest about or view as your crowning achievement?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 50 years from now they\u2019ll say, \u201cLook, here\u2019s the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where that fellow \u2026 what was his name?\u201d [Laughs] I\u2019ve had several \u201caha!\u201d moments. Certainly one was the theory of island biogeography that came together in conversations with MacArthur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second one hasn\u2019t been noted very much but it was one of the reasons I got the National Medal of Science at a very young age, in 1976. That\u2019s the development of pheromone biology and studies of social insects, and also the very first theory of pheromone molecular evolution and dynamics. I published the theory <\/b>in 1962. That was done with another colleague right here at Harvard, Bill Bossert. Bossert and I produced the first basic conception on what would be the optimal nature and size of pheromone molecules and how one could predict the rate and extent that they spread and how all this could be adaptive for the species. Oddly, pheromone research hasn\u2019t advanced very much. I have a feeling the reason for that \u2014 the theory I worked out with Bossert was not given much attention \u2014 is that about the only place people produce pheromones is in their armpit and that is not very interesting. [Laughs]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third happy \u2014 aha! \u2014 moment. The one time I couldn\u2019t sleep at night was after making the first fire ant pheromone discovery. I did it here in the lab with fire ants. I decided to use a trail pheromone. When I hit the tiny gland that produces it in the rear part of the ant, I got a completely surprising response. The ants followed it, but it activated them in a variety of other ways. It excited them. It caused them to start communicating with other ants that followed. The fire ant trail substance was the first glandular pheromone source discovered in insects, or at least in social insects. Subsequent research showed that it was a blend of pheromones. So what I was looking at was a variety of messages sent simultaneously among the ants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One aha! moment, sort of a lowercase aha!, was the discovery and description of the first ant of Mesozoic age, in other words, ancestral to modern ants. I knew that ants must have originated in the age of reptiles, back in the Mesozoic, but the earliest specimens we had were from the age of mammals, back 60 million years. So all of us were waiting for the discovery of a Mesozoic ant, when two of them were found in one piece of amber. I\u2019d like to tell you it was found on an upper branch of the Amazon River, but it wasn\u2019t; it was on the New Jersey shore [laughs] \u2014 in a 90-million-year-old deposit of amber and woody materials. Out of that came a perfect specimen in a perfect piece of amber, clear as glass with two ants in it. That was a thrilling moment to put it under a microscope and say, \u201cOK, guys, we\u2019ve already <\/b>made it to 60 million and now we\u2019re going to go all the way back to 90 million.\u201d And the darn things fitted exactly how we predicted if ants evolved from wasps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the late \u201960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, a drawn-out aha!, the one that really caused quite an uproar here at Harvard, was when I was building the field of sociobiology, first with the book called \u201cThe Insect Societies,\u201d in 1971, and then \u201cSociobiology: The New Synthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sociobiology was far more than what many of its critics wanted to call it: just the belief that human beings have genetic-based instincts. Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior in all kinds of animals, and that\u2019s how I developed it in those two books. It was very simple. I did say that maybe the same principles that we\u2019re learning from comparative studies of social behavior and the evolution of social behavior in animals might apply to human beings. But if it applied to human beings, the only way it can be applied meaningfully is that human beings have instincts. We have drives that are inborn, that people inherit, and there may be variation among people. I stepped into a minefield by finishing this big book, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d with a chapter saying how it could be applied to people. I tried to be cautious. I should have been more politically careful, by saying this does not imply racism, it does not imply sexism, I\u2019m not trying to defend capitalism, so don\u2019t drop the world on top of me. If I\u2019d added that in the book, then I might have gotten off a little easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the \u201960s and \u201970s it became almost dogma \u2014 it was<\/i> a dogma \u2014 to believe that the human brain was a tabula rasa, a blank slate. I don\u2019t think scholars in this generation, even those of middle age, can appreciate how stern was the prohibition against believing that human behavior was influenced by genes in any manner whatsoever. The only acceptable view was that the brain was a blank slate and what humanity does and humanity feels and what societies end up becoming is strictly a matter of choice and is determined by our history, particularly <\/b>by the culture we\u2019re born with. We can design a much more perfect society if we use our reason and train the brain accordingly. That was the belief in the social sciences. It was also the belief of the \u2014 how shall I put it \u2014 the far left among some scientists, including two of my more notable colleagues here at Harvard, Richard Lewontin and Stephen J. Gould. They were really incensed that a colleague of theirs would deviate so far from what was the needed ideology, the political ideology, to make social progress. And they were marvelously sophisticated Marxists, with well-reasoned ideas of how to blend socialism and biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvard faculty and the students \u2014 partly as a result of the convulsions of the \u201960s \u2014 were far left and very few would openly defy them. Being from Alabama, I was expected, I think, to be a conservative.  And I can tell you now, thinking back, I was really neither. I was at neither end of the spectrum. I was an innocent sociobiologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought that this was a great idea. I saw all sorts of possibilities for building a sociobiology that could then be picked up by social scientists. And I really was so naive as to think my colleagues in the social sciences would be grateful to me [laughs] for having provided them with a whole different armamentarium for their theories on <\/b>the origins of human behavior. What I got was mostly buckshot [laughs]. That has changed now, but that was the aha! moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Were you surprised at the response? Did you have no idea it would be controversial?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had no idea. I really wish I could say I knew it was coming, but it really blindsided me. And it took me a while to figure out how to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you have an emotional reaction? Did you feel hurt or was it more intellectual?
<\/i><\/strong> <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was more intellectual. The first time I saw one of these counterattacks appear in The New York Review of Books, I <\/b>saw I was going to win this one. With the reasoning and evidence, I felt confident. It was science versus political ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I really was upset at being called a racist, promoting racism and sexism. I was accused of trying to reintroduce a retrograde, outmoded, dangerous philosophy. There was nothing in \u201cSociobiology\u201d to suggest such a thing. The words had to be taken out of context and tweaked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one occasion, I had a little mob in Harvard Square parading and protesting and holding placards demanding that Harvard dismiss me. On another occasion, when I was to give a lecture at the Science Center, a crowd of protesters gathered at the entrance with signs and shouts and chants and so on. I was ushered in through the rear by University police. My class was disrupted at least once. Not seriously, but yeah, that\u2019s annoying. Looking back at that now, it was a very strange period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This created a sensation, but at least students were exposed to new <\/b>ideas. I say to myself to this day, \u201cIs this not what a university is for?\u201d This is what a university is supposed to be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Wilson, in his office at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, writes or does research daily.\t\t\t<\/p>

Harvard University<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How about mistakes along the way? Are there things that you regret or things you might have done differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was one of them. When I was writing \u201cSociobiology,\u201d if I had to do it over again, I would have written a solid piece in that infamous final chapter and said that it really tells us nothing about the best political system or correct ideology. This is just knowledge, through which we can acquire a view of the human condition. We can acquire what we did not have before and this has to be useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the strongest argument today that your thoughts on sociobiology were right? I hear a lot of things related to the obesity epidemic, people trying to explain why we behave the way we do.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That book came out in \u201975, and in the early \u201980s, the field of evolutionary psychology spun off. My colleagues working in the social sciences and psychology who created evolutionary psychology avoided the word \u201csociobiology\u201d \u2014 some of them told me this. They wanted to use another word that wouldn\u2019t be tarnished from the beginning. To this day \u201csociobiology\u201d is only sparingly used as an expression because people are still a little afraid of it. In 1978, in the midst of all the tumult \u2014 people smile when I say \u201ctumult\u201d in talking about academics hitting one another with beanbags; it really wasn\u2019t quite the same as a civil war \u2014 I said to myself, \u201cI have to write a book that will do what I should have done in \u2018Sociobiology.\u2019\u201d That is, explain how I view human behavior and what the applications of sociobiology could be and what the possibilities of it are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that it\u2019s fair to say the work I produced was the founding book of evolutionary psychology, although it wasn\u2019t until the next decade that the term evolutionary psychology began to be used. But the book, \u201cOn Human Nature,\u201d in 1978 won a Pulitzer Prize and, as we say in a Southeastern Conference football game when our team scores on the opponent\u2019s field, \u201cThat has a way of quieting the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think of an entomologist winning two Pulitzer Prizes? Is that something you could have envisioned when you were a young boy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it\u2019s bizarre [laughs]. It was luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second Pulitzer was a big, comprehensive book Bert H\u00f6lldobler and I put together. Bert and I worked together for a dozen years in the laboratory section of the MCZ [Museum of Comparative Zoology] and our collaboration was very fruitful. We had different talents and different approaches. Bert brought in rigorous methods of investigation by stepwise experimentation. I brought into the mix the scientific natural history. I knew the ants; I knew what was interesting to look at. We published a lot. And then Bert couldn\u2019t get enough of the support he needed and the University of W\u00fcrzburg offered him a million dollar prize to create anything he wanted to create. And so off Bert went. But before he left, we said, \u201cLook, between the two of us, we know everything there is to know about ants.\u201d Nobody could say that today because the field, myrmecology, has grown exponentially, but you could say it then. And we said, \u201cLet\u2019s write a book that has everything known about ants.\u201d And to my astonishment, it was given the Pulitzer. It was also the only book of science-meant-for-scientists to win the prize. We didn\u2019t write this for the literary world \u2014 we wrote it for scientists. But we did our best job of writing and illustrating and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your philosophy of writing? Do you have writing habits? Do you write every day?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you love it or is it a chore sometimes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love it. You know, like a shark, unless you swim you sink? I have that feeling. I remember one of the great pianists once said about practicing, \u201cI miss a week of practice and the audience notices. I miss a day, and I notice.\u201d It\u2019s just what I love to do. I love the research, I love the study, I love the quiet thought, and I like writing. I just write or conduct research every day. Always there\u2019s something new to write about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you do it here or do you have a study at home?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostly, I do it at home now. And I write longhand on yellow, lined legal paper and Kathy Horton is the reason I can do that. She\u2019s been working with me 47 years and she knows everything, knows everybody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safe to say she\u2019s deciphered your handwriting by now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has. There have actually been occasions where I couldn\u2019t decipher what I\u2019d written, at least <\/b>a word or two, but she could translate it. She\u2019s like having a cuneiform expert help you out with Assyrian tablets. She is really very good at what she does and it has allowed me to move smoothly over a long period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is most exciting about your field right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are on a little-known planet. We have knowledge of two million species, but for the vast majority we know only the name and a little bit of the anatomy. We don\u2019t know anything at all about their biology. There is conservatively at least eight million species in all, and it\u2019s probably much more than that because of the bacteria and archaea and microorganisms we\u2019re just beginning to explore. The number of species remaining to be discovered could easily go into the tens of millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will in time see a surging interest in and support of the area of biodiversity studies. I believe Harvard should be the world\u2019s leading university in this field and in those branches of ecology and conservation biology that have biodiversity studies as a foundation. Harvard should be in a position to lead, because Harvard has the largest private collection of plants, animals, and fungi \u2014 three of the major groups \u2014 in the world. It has one of the finest libraries in the world. It has a great tradition, going back to Agassiz, of major studies and acquisitions of major collections. It\u2019s obvious that this is the place to build the discipline \u2026 so that Harvard could be one of the universities, one of the rare universities, in the front rank of both of the two big divisions of biology, structure and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you feel about the future of biodiversity on the planet? Are you optimistic or pessimistic?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I use an expression John Kennedy used at least once about the future generally: cautiously optimistic. I\u2019m now advising on reconstruction of a national park in Mozambique, the Gorongosa National Park. I\u2019m working with a group on the Gulf Coast to create a new park at Mobile and the Delta, which will be the biologically richest in America. This is how I\u2019d like to see progress achieved, step by step. It\u2019s what I\u2019m going to be involved in, as much as I\u2019m able, in the years I have left. We have an opportunity. We still can put aside a large portion of the world in reserves of biodiversity. But that potential is shrinking steadily and we really need to do something now. This is where Harvard can play a major role. If it becomes policy in a sufficient number of nations, then there are plenty of reasons for optimism. But if we keep going the way we are now, we\u2019re going to lose a large part of biodiversity by the end of the century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What lessons can a young student starting out today, looking at your career and thinking, \u201cI want to make an impact like that\u201d \u2014 what lessons can he or she extract from your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It almost sounds trite, you hear it so often, but you don\u2019t see enough of it in college-age students, and that is to acquire a passion. You probably already have one, but if you haven\u2019t got one, search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression. With reference to biology and science, do the opposite of the military dictum and march away from the sound of guns. Don\u2019t get too enamored by what\u2019s happening right at this moment and science heroes doing great things currently. Learn from them, but think further down the line: Move to an area where you can be a pioneer. That kind of opportunity is everywhere in science and especially in biology, including biodiversity studies and ecology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you ever think of leaving Harvard? You\u2019ve been here many years and had lots of victories. What kept you here all the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like being at the world\u2019s greatest university with the world\u2019s best insect and ant collections. Believe it or not, however, during the height of the anti-sociobiology furor, I started looking around at other universities where I could work in peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to confess, here for the first time, I had a fantasy of going to Texas A&M, where I could sit peacefully in my lab working, with good graduate students, while watching cadets marching by outside [laughs].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I never really came close to leaving Harvard. It\u2019s just too great a place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview was edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

E.O. 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Wilson has devoted his life to a better understanding of the workings of the natural world and to sharing his research and insights with Harvard students.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/search-until-you-find-a-passion-and-go-all-out-to-excel-in-its-expression\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Harvard Gazette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-15T20:22:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-20T21:53:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/121213_Wilson_Edward_078_2500.jpg?resize=1024,683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"harvardgazette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/search-until-you-find-a-passion-and-go-all-out-to-excel-in-its-expression\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/search-until-you-find-a-passion-and-go-all-out-to-excel-in-its-expression\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"harvardgazette\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#\/schema\/person\/78d028cf624923e92682268709ffbc4b\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018Search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-15T20:22:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-20T21:53:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/search-until-you-find-a-passion-and-go-all-out-to-excel-in-its-expression\/\"},\"wordCount\":4793,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/search-until-you-find-a-passion-and-go-all-out-to-excel-in-its-expression\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/121213_Wilson_Edward_078_2500.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alvin Powell\",\"Ants\",\"Biodiversity\",\"Edward O. 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Wilson\" height=\"1667\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/121213_Wilson_Edward_078_2500.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photos by Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"E.O. Wilson\" height=\"1667\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/121213_Wilson_Edward_078_2500.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photos by Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below has-uncropped-image\"\n\tstyle=\" --min-height: 66.68vw;\"\n>\n\t\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"E.O. Wilson\" height=\"1667\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/121213_Wilson_Edward_078_2500.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photos by Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tCampus & Community\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\t\u2018Search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression\u2019\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tAlvin Powell\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2014-04-15\">\n\t\t\tApril 15, 2014\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\tlong read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tFor E.O. Wilson, wonders never cease\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<em><strong>Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Edward O. Wilson, pioneering biologist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and Harvard professor for more than four decades, died December 26 at age 92. In a 2014 interview with the Gazette, he looked back on his life and work. <\/em>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><em><strong>Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Edward O. Wilson, pioneering biologist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and Harvard professor for more than four decades, died December 26 at age 92. In a 2014 interview with the Gazette, he looked back on his life and work. <\/em><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><em><strong>Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Edward O. Wilson, pioneering biologist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and Harvard professor for more than four decades, died December 26 at age 92. In a 2014 interview with the Gazette, he looked back on his life and work. <\/em><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><em><strong>Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Edward O. Wilson, pioneering biologist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and Harvard professor for more than four decades, died December 26 at age 92. In a 2014 interview with the Gazette, he looked back on his life and work. <\/em><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Edward O. Wilson, the Pellegrino University Professor <i>Emeritus<\/i>, was born in Alabama in June 1929. A boyhood immersed in nature and the world of insects provided an education he would build on through high school and at the University of Alabama, and then during graduate studies at Harvard, where he\u2019s been since receiving his Ph.D. in 1955.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Edward O. Wilson, the Pellegrino University Professor <i>Emeritus<\/i>, was born in Alabama in June 1929. A boyhood immersed in nature and the world of insects provided an education he would build on through high school and at the University of Alabama, and then during graduate studies at Harvard, where he\u2019s been since receiving his Ph.D. in 1955.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Edward O. Wilson, the Pellegrino University Professor <i>Emeritus<\/i>, was born in Alabama in June 1929. A boyhood immersed in nature and the world of insects provided an education he would build on through high school and at the University of Alabama, and then during graduate studies at Harvard, where he\u2019s been since receiving his Ph.D. in 1955.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Edward O. Wilson, the Pellegrino University Professor <i>Emeritus<\/i>, was born in Alabama in June 1929. A boyhood immersed in nature and the world of insects provided an education he would build on through high school and at the University of Alabama, and then during graduate studies at Harvard, where he\u2019s been since receiving his Ph.D. in 1955.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Wilson is probably best known for his groundbreaking insights on ants, but his research has extended deep into other realms of science, sometimes with provocative results. His theory of island biogeography, written with Robert MacArthur, examined how species rise and fall on isolated islands, both those surrounded by water and, more importantly for conservation today, habitat islands surrounded by different landscapes. His book on the biological roots of behavior, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d touched off an academic row in the mid-1970s.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Wilson is probably best known for his groundbreaking insights on ants, but his research has extended deep into other realms of science, sometimes with provocative results. His theory of island biogeography, written with Robert MacArthur, examined how species rise and fall on isolated islands, both those surrounded by water and, more importantly for conservation today, habitat islands surrounded by different landscapes. His book on the biological roots of behavior, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d touched off an academic row in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Wilson is probably best known for his groundbreaking insights on ants, but his research has extended deep into other realms of science, sometimes with provocative results. His theory of island biogeography, written with Robert MacArthur, examined how species rise and fall on isolated islands, both those surrounded by water and, more importantly for conservation today, habitat islands surrounded by different landscapes. His book on the biological roots of behavior, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d touched off an academic row in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Wilson is probably best known for his groundbreaking insights on ants, but his research has extended deep into other realms of science, sometimes with provocative results. His theory of island biogeography, written with Robert MacArthur, examined how species rise and fall on isolated islands, both those surrounded by water and, more importantly for conservation today, habitat islands surrounded by different landscapes. His book on the biological roots of behavior, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d touched off an academic row in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Wilson\u2019s honors include two Pulitzer Prizes \u2014 for \u00a0\u201cOn Human Nature\u201d and, with Bert H\u00f6lldobler, \u201cThe Ants\u201d \u2014 the National Medal of Science, in 1976, and the 1990 Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He retired from full-time scholarship and teaching in 1996, but has carried on with research and writing.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Wilson\u2019s honors include two Pulitzer Prizes \u2014 for  \u201cOn Human Nature\u201d and, with Bert H\u00f6lldobler, \u201cThe Ants\u201d \u2014 the National Medal of Science, in 1976, and the 1990 Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He retired from full-time scholarship and teaching in 1996, but has carried on with research and writing.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Wilson\u2019s honors include two Pulitzer Prizes \u2014 for  \u201cOn Human Nature\u201d and, with Bert H\u00f6lldobler, \u201cThe Ants\u201d \u2014 the National Medal of Science, in 1976, and the 1990 Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He retired from full-time scholarship and teaching in 1996, but has carried on with research and writing.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Wilson\u2019s honors include two Pulitzer Prizes \u2014 for  \u201cOn Human Nature\u201d and, with Bert H\u00f6lldobler, \u201cThe Ants\u201d \u2014 the National Medal of Science, in 1976, and the 1990 Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He retired from full-time scholarship and teaching in 1996, but has carried on with research and writing.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>What guided you into the field of ant biology, and were there other options at the time?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>What guided you into the field of ant biology, and were there other options at the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>What guided you into the field of ant biology, and were there other options at the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What guided you into the field of ant biology, and were there other options at the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"There weren\u2019t many options growing up in Alabama and I wasn\u2019t even thinking that I would eventually have to choose a career. But I had chosen one just the same. I had become so passionate about nature and insects that I decided by my teens that I would become an entomologist. I thought probably what I\u2019d do is join the Department of Agriculture and become an extension entomologist and advise farmers. Basically, I was willing to do anything to allow me to devote myself to entomology. I also got a lot from the Boy Scouts. That\u2019s where I got my main education in an otherwise poor public school system.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>There weren\u2019t many options growing up in Alabama and I wasn\u2019t even thinking that I would eventually have to choose a career. But I had chosen one just the same. I had become so passionate about nature and insects that I decided by my teens that I would become an entomologist. I thought probably what I\u2019d do is join the Department of Agriculture and become an extension entomologist and advise farmers. Basically, I was willing to do anything to allow me to devote myself to entomology. I also got a lot from the Boy Scouts. That\u2019s where I got my main education in an otherwise poor public school system.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>There weren\u2019t many options growing up in Alabama and I wasn\u2019t even thinking that I would eventually have to choose a career. But I had chosen one just the same. I had become so passionate about nature and insects that I decided by my teens that I would become an entomologist. I thought probably what I\u2019d do is join the Department of Agriculture and become an extension entomologist and advise farmers. Basically, I was willing to do anything to allow me to devote myself to entomology. I also got a lot from the Boy Scouts. That\u2019s where I got my main education in an otherwise poor public school system.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>There weren\u2019t many options growing up in Alabama and I wasn\u2019t even thinking that I would eventually have to choose a career. But I had chosen one just the same. I had become so passionate about nature and insects that I decided by my teens that I would become an entomologist. I thought probably what I\u2019d do is join the Department of Agriculture and become an extension entomologist and advise farmers. Basically, I was willing to do anything to allow me to devote myself to entomology. I also got a lot from the Boy Scouts. That\u2019s where I got my main education in an otherwise poor public school system.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"When I arrived at the University of Alabama, I had just passed my 17th birthday. I found that the doors were open and the faculty there was very welcoming and supportive. They didn\u2019t get many people, back there in the \u201940s, who were interested in becoming an academic. Most of the biology concentrators were pre-med. I graduated shortly after my 20th birthday, then went on to get a master\u2019s degree, and then to the University of Tennessee \u2014 that was getting pretty far north for me \u2014 to join their doctoral program. I had a wonderful professor of botany named Jack Sharp. He was known nationally for his research on plants. In late 1950 or early 1951, he wrote from Knoxville to his friend Frank Carpenter, who was chairman of the Biology Department and professor of entomology, and said, \u201cThis kid does not belong here, he belongs at Harvard.\u201d He did me a tremendous service with that letter.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>When I arrived at the University of Alabama, I had just passed my 17th birthday. I found that the doors were open and the faculty there was very welcoming and supportive. They didn\u2019t get many people, back there in the \u201940s, who were interested in becoming an academic. Most of the biology concentrators were pre-med. I graduated shortly after my 20th birthday, then went on to get a master\u2019s degree, and then to the University of Tennessee \u2014 that was getting pretty far north for me \u2014 to join their doctoral program. I had a wonderful professor of botany named Jack Sharp. He was known nationally for his research on plants. In late 1950 or early 1951, he wrote from Knoxville to his friend Frank Carpenter, who was chairman of the Biology Department and professor of entomology, and said, \u201cThis kid does not belong here, he belongs at Harvard.\u201d He did me a tremendous service with that letter.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>When I arrived at the University of Alabama, I had just passed my 17th birthday. I found that the doors were open and the faculty there was very welcoming and supportive. They didn\u2019t get many people, back there in the \u201940s, who were interested in becoming an academic. Most of the biology concentrators were pre-med. I graduated shortly after my 20th birthday, then went on to get a master\u2019s degree, and then to the University of Tennessee \u2014 that was getting pretty far north for me \u2014 to join their doctoral program. I had a wonderful professor of botany named Jack Sharp. He was known nationally for his research on plants. In late 1950 or early 1951, he wrote from Knoxville to his friend Frank Carpenter, who was chairman of the Biology Department and professor of entomology, and said, \u201cThis kid does not belong here, he belongs at Harvard.\u201d He did me a tremendous service with that letter.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>When I arrived at the University of Alabama, I had just passed my 17th birthday. I found that the doors were open and the faculty there was very welcoming and supportive. They didn\u2019t get many people, back there in the \u201940s, who were interested in becoming an academic. Most of the biology concentrators were pre-med. I graduated shortly after my 20th birthday, then went on to get a master\u2019s degree, and then to the University of Tennessee \u2014 that was getting pretty far north for me \u2014 to join their doctoral program. I had a wonderful professor of botany named Jack Sharp. He was known nationally for his research on plants. In late 1950 or early 1951, he wrote from Knoxville to his friend Frank Carpenter, who was chairman of the Biology Department and professor of entomology, and said, \u201cThis kid does not belong here, he belongs at Harvard.\u201d He did me a tremendous service with that letter.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I\u2019d already visited Harvard in the summer of 1950, mainly to see the ant collection and visit a graduate student working on ants with whom I\u2019d corresponded. I had made some added connection there and met one of the professors in the Biology Department. The result was that Harvard wrote me, saying that if I cared to apply, it\u2019s very likely I would get a teaching fellowship and be admitted. And I did just that.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I\u2019d already visited Harvard in the summer of 1950, mainly to see the ant collection and visit a graduate student working on ants with whom I\u2019d corresponded. I had made some added connection there and met one of the professors in the Biology Department. The result was that Harvard wrote me, saying that if I cared to apply, it\u2019s very likely I would get a teaching fellowship and be admitted. And I did just that.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I\u2019d already visited Harvard in the summer of 1950, mainly to see the ant collection and visit a graduate student working on ants with whom I\u2019d corresponded. I had made some added connection there and met one of the professors in the Biology Department. The result was that Harvard wrote me, saying that if I cared to apply, it\u2019s very likely I would get a teaching fellowship and be admitted. And I did just that.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I\u2019d already visited Harvard in the summer of 1950, mainly to see the ant collection and visit a graduate student working on ants with whom I\u2019d corresponded. I had made some added connection there and met one of the professors in the Biology Department. The result was that Harvard wrote me, saying that if I cared to apply, it\u2019s very likely I would get a teaching fellowship and be admitted. And I did just that.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"In the spring of \u201953 I was overjoyed to receive a junior fellowship [of the Society of Fellows], and the ability to go anywhere in the world I wanted, with all expenses paid, to do anything I wished. The only oath asked of the new junior fellows at the dinner at Eliot House was that they do something extraordinary. What an incredible charge to give an ambitious young man or woman: \u201cWe don\u2019t care what you do, what field you go into as long as you accomplish something \u2014 as a junior fellow \u2014 extraordinary.\u201d I decided I would do that.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>In the spring of \u201953 I was overjoyed to receive a junior fellowship [of the Society of Fellows], and the ability to go anywhere in the world I wanted, with all expenses paid, to do anything I wished. The only oath asked of the new junior fellows at the dinner at Eliot House was that they do something extraordinary. What an incredible charge to give an ambitious young man or woman: \u201cWe don\u2019t care what you do, what field you go into as long as you accomplish something \u2014 as a junior fellow \u2014 extraordinary.\u201d I decided I would do that.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>In the spring of \u201953 I was overjoyed to receive a junior fellowship [of the Society of Fellows], and the ability to go anywhere in the world I wanted, with all expenses paid, to do anything I wished. The only oath asked of the new junior fellows at the dinner at Eliot House was that they do something extraordinary. What an incredible charge to give an ambitious young man or woman: \u201cWe don\u2019t care what you do, what field you go into as long as you accomplish something \u2014 as a junior fellow \u2014 extraordinary.\u201d I decided I would do that.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>In the spring of \u201953 I was overjoyed to receive a junior fellowship [of the Society of Fellows], and the ability to go anywhere in the world I wanted, with all expenses paid, to do anything I wished. The only oath asked of the new junior fellows at the dinner at Eliot House was that they do something extraordinary. What an incredible charge to give an ambitious young man or woman: \u201cWe don\u2019t care what you do, what field you go into as long as you accomplish something \u2014 as a junior fellow \u2014 extraordinary.\u201d I decided I would do that.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>What was it about entomology that attracted you? Was it the ability to explore the outdoors or something about the insects themselves that drew you?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>What was it about entomology that attracted you? Was it the ability to explore the outdoors or something about the insects themselves that drew you?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>What was it about entomology that attracted you? Was it the ability to explore the outdoors or something about the insects themselves that drew you?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What was it about entomology that attracted you? Was it the ability to explore the outdoors or something about the insects themselves that drew you?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I have only one functional eye, my left eye, but it\u2019s very sharp. And I somehow focused on little things. I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did, and took an interest in them automatically. Even at the age of 9 in school in Washington, D.C., I was reading about insects<b> <\/b>through all the National Geographics. And there was one article in 1934 entitled, \u201cStalking Ants: Savage and Civilized.\u201d It happened to be by the man [William M. Mann] who later became the director of the National Zoo, and he got his Ph.D. here at Harvard. It<b> <\/b>just knocked me flat when I read about that.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I have only one functional eye, my left eye, but it\u2019s very sharp. And I somehow focused on little things. I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did, and took an interest in them automatically. Even at the age of 9 in school in Washington, D.C., I was reading about insects<b> <\/b>through all the National Geographics. And there was one article in 1934 entitled, \u201cStalking Ants: Savage and Civilized.\u201d It happened to be by the man [William M. Mann] who later became the director of the National Zoo, and he got his Ph.D. here at Harvard. It<b> <\/b>just knocked me flat when I read about that.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I have only one functional eye, my left eye, but it\u2019s very sharp. And I somehow focused on little things. I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did, and took an interest in them automatically. Even at the age of 9 in school in Washington, D.C., I was reading about insects<b> <\/b>through all the National Geographics. And there was one article in 1934 entitled, \u201cStalking Ants: Savage and Civilized.\u201d It happened to be by the man [William M. Mann] who later became the director of the National Zoo, and he got his Ph.D. here at Harvard. It<b> <\/b>just knocked me flat when I read about that.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I have only one functional eye, my left eye, but it\u2019s very sharp. And I somehow focused on little things. I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did, and took an interest in them automatically. Even at the age of 9 in school in Washington, D.C., I was reading about insects<b> <\/b>through all the National Geographics. And there was one article in 1934 entitled, \u201cStalking Ants: Savage and Civilized.\u201d It happened to be by the man [William M. Mann] who later became the director of the National Zoo, and he got his Ph.D. here at Harvard. It<b> <\/b>just knocked me flat when I read about that.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Even though most of the species he depicted were found only in other countries, especially in the tropics, I was soon out watching ants, trying to find the ants he mentioned in the book and going to the national museum. I was<b> <\/b>also developing a passion for butterflies. I had a net, which my stepmother made for me from a coat hanger, cheesecloth, and a broom handle. So I was off and running by the age of 10. I was trying to read books on entomology. They were over my head, of course, but I had the ambition to learn what I could when I could. And all through my teen years, as I was advancing up to Eagle Scout in Alabama, I was focusing on natural history, including ants and butterflies and snakes.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Even though most of the species he depicted were found only in other countries, especially in the tropics, I was soon out watching ants, trying to find the ants he mentioned in the book and going to the national museum. I was<b> <\/b>also developing a passion for butterflies. I had a net, which my stepmother made for me from a coat hanger, cheesecloth, and a broom handle. So I was off and running by the age of 10. I was trying to read books on entomology. They were over my head, of course, but I had the ambition to learn what I could when I could. And all through my teen years, as I was advancing up to Eagle Scout in Alabama, I was focusing on natural history, including ants and butterflies and snakes.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Even though most of the species he depicted were found only in other countries, especially in the tropics, I was soon out watching ants, trying to find the ants he mentioned in the book and going to the national museum. I was<b> <\/b>also developing a passion for butterflies. I had a net, which my stepmother made for me from a coat hanger, cheesecloth, and a broom handle. So I was off and running by the age of 10. I was trying to read books on entomology. They were over my head, of course, but I had the ambition to learn what I could when I could. And all through my teen years, as I was advancing up to Eagle Scout in Alabama, I was focusing on natural history, including ants and butterflies and snakes.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Even though most of the species he depicted were found only in other countries, especially in the tropics, I was soon out watching ants, trying to find the ants he mentioned in the book and going to the national museum. I was<b> <\/b>also developing a passion for butterflies. I had a net, which my stepmother made for me from a coat hanger, cheesecloth, and a broom handle. So I was off and running by the age of 10. I was trying to read books on entomology. They were over my head, of course, but I had the ambition to learn what I could when I could. And all through my teen years, as I was advancing up to Eagle Scout in Alabama, I was focusing on natural history, including ants and butterflies and snakes.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>Did you ever give your selection of ants a second thought? Did you ever, in a discouraging time, ask, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I do something easy?\u201d<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>Did you ever give your selection of ants a second thought? Did you ever, in a discouraging time, ask, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I do something easy?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>Did you ever give your selection of ants a second thought? Did you ever, in a discouraging time, ask, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I do something easy?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Did you ever give your selection of ants a second thought? Did you ever, in a discouraging time, ask, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I do something easy?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Ants are easy. I had been collecting them all over the state of Alabama and elsewhere and identifying [them]. I had already, in high school, made friends with the very small number of ant experts in the United States, exchanging specimens and getting advice and so on. It seemed terribly easy to me from the beginning.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Ants are easy. I had been collecting them all over the state of Alabama and elsewhere and identifying [them]. I had already, in high school, made friends with the very small number of ant experts in the United States, exchanging specimens and getting advice and so on. It seemed terribly easy to me from the beginning.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Ants are easy. I had been collecting them all over the state of Alabama and elsewhere and identifying [them]. I had already, in high school, made friends with the very small number of ant experts in the United States, exchanging specimens and getting advice and so on. It seemed terribly easy to me from the beginning.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Ants are easy. I had been collecting them all over the state of Alabama and elsewhere and identifying [them]. I had already, in high school, made friends with the very small number of ant experts in the United States, exchanging specimens and getting advice and so on. It seemed terribly easy to me from the beginning.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"What I wanted to do when I got to Harvard was get a much broader background. This was helped substantially by contacts in the Biology Department and also the Society of Fellows. I had the pleasure of having conversations with other junior fellows, who included people like Marvin Minsky and Noam Chomsky, and got to meet people like T.S. Eliot and Robert Oppenheimer. It was just amazing. You could talk with these exceptional people and grow in breadth and confidence. But the dream that kept returning was to go to the tropics and study the ants of the rainforest. I left almost as soon as I became a junior fellow.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>What I wanted to do when I got to Harvard was get a much broader background. This was helped substantially by contacts in the Biology Department and also the Society of Fellows. I had the pleasure of having conversations with other junior fellows, who included people like Marvin Minsky and Noam Chomsky, and got to meet people like T.S. Eliot and Robert Oppenheimer. It was just amazing. You could talk with these exceptional people and grow in breadth and confidence. But the dream that kept returning was to go to the tropics and study the ants of the rainforest. I left almost as soon as I became a junior fellow.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>What I wanted to do when I got to Harvard was get a much broader background. This was helped substantially by contacts in the Biology Department and also the Society of Fellows. I had the pleasure of having conversations with other junior fellows, who included people like Marvin Minsky and Noam Chomsky, and got to meet people like T.S. Eliot and Robert Oppenheimer. It was just amazing. You could talk with these exceptional people and grow in breadth and confidence. But the dream that kept returning was to go to the tropics and study the ants of the rainforest. I left almost as soon as I became a junior fellow.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>What I wanted to do when I got to Harvard was get a much broader background. This was helped substantially by contacts in the Biology Department and also the Society of Fellows. I had the pleasure of having conversations with other junior fellows, who included people like Marvin Minsky and Noam Chomsky, and got to meet people like T.S. Eliot and Robert Oppenheimer. It was just amazing. You could talk with these exceptional people and grow in breadth and confidence. But the dream that kept returning was to go to the tropics and study the ants of the rainforest. I left almost as soon as I became a junior fellow.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"In 1953, I was off to Cuba and Mexico, a paradise for me of tropical forests inhabited by hundreds of kinds of ants. And then I came back and finished my Ph.D. I soon informed the chairman of the fellows, the historian Crane Brinton, that I was on my way to New Guinea, to all the other archipelagos of Melanesia, and I would try to cost the Society of Fellows as little as possible. And off I went. It was there that I collected ants and studied rainforests and thought about ecology and took long, sometimes solitary trips through the forests. I began to develop ideas about how ants had gotten into these distant places and how they\u2019d evolved.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>In 1953, I was off to Cuba and Mexico, a paradise for me of tropical forests inhabited by hundreds of kinds of ants. And then I came back and finished my Ph.D. I soon informed the chairman of the fellows, the historian Crane Brinton, that I was on my way to New Guinea, to all the other archipelagos of Melanesia, and I would try to cost the Society of Fellows as little as possible. And off I went. It was there that I collected ants and studied rainforests and thought about ecology and took long, sometimes solitary trips through the forests. I began to develop ideas about how ants had gotten into these distant places and how they\u2019d evolved.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>In 1953, I was off to Cuba and Mexico, a paradise for me of tropical forests inhabited by hundreds of kinds of ants. And then I came back and finished my Ph.D. I soon informed the chairman of the fellows, the historian Crane Brinton, that I was on my way to New Guinea, to all the other archipelagos of Melanesia, and I would try to cost the Society of Fellows as little as possible. And off I went. It was there that I collected ants and studied rainforests and thought about ecology and took long, sometimes solitary trips through the forests. I began to develop ideas about how ants had gotten into these distant places and how they\u2019d evolved.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>In 1953, I was off to Cuba and Mexico, a paradise for me of tropical forests inhabited by hundreds of kinds of ants. And then I came back and finished my Ph.D. I soon informed the chairman of the fellows, the historian Crane Brinton, that I was on my way to New Guinea, to all the other archipelagos of Melanesia, and I would try to cost the Society of Fellows as little as possible. And off I went. It was there that I collected ants and studied rainforests and thought about ecology and took long, sometimes solitary trips through the forests. I began to develop ideas about how ants had gotten into these distant places and how they\u2019d evolved.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"In later years I realized that what I was doing is what Germans call <i>wanderjahr<\/i>, the<b> <\/b>year of wandering. It is a German expression for young men who were expected to leave the village. They\u2019d mature and go off to another village to learn a trade. And this is what people like Darwin, Philip Darlington, here the curator of entomology, and Ernst Mayr had done. As young men, they were in the tropics soaking up all the raw information and experience of what the natural world is really like, and forming ideas about it. I came back in 1955, married, and was bursting with ideas about what I could do in science, using ants as my principal group.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>In later years I realized that what I was doing is what Germans call <i>wanderjahr<\/i>, the<b> <\/b>year of wandering. It is a German expression for young men who were expected to leave the village. They\u2019d mature and go off to another village to learn a trade. And this is what people like Darwin, Philip Darlington, here the curator of entomology, and Ernst Mayr had done. As young men, they were in the tropics soaking up all the raw information and experience of what the natural world is really like, and forming ideas about it. I came back in 1955, married, and was bursting with ideas about what I could do in science, using ants as my principal group.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>In later years I realized that what I was doing is what Germans call <i>wanderjahr<\/i>, the<b> <\/b>year of wandering. It is a German expression for young men who were expected to leave the village. They\u2019d mature and go off to another village to learn a trade. And this is what people like Darwin, Philip Darlington, here the curator of entomology, and Ernst Mayr had done. As young men, they were in the tropics soaking up all the raw information and experience of what the natural world is really like, and forming ideas about it. I came back in 1955, married, and was bursting with ideas about what I could do in science, using ants as my principal group.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>In later years I realized that what I was doing is what Germans call <i>wanderjahr<\/i>, the<b> <\/b>year of wandering. It is a German expression for young men who were expected to leave the village. They\u2019d mature and go off to another village to learn a trade. And this is what people like Darwin, Philip Darlington, here the curator of entomology, and Ernst Mayr had done. As young men, they were in the tropics soaking up all the raw information and experience of what the natural world is really like, and forming ideas about it. I came back in 1955, married, and was bursting with ideas about what I could do in science, using ants as my principal group.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>And did that trip lead specifically to any of your noted theories? Did the theory of island biogeography come from there?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>And did that trip lead specifically to any of your noted theories? Did the theory of island biogeography come from there?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>And did that trip lead specifically to any of your noted theories? Did the theory of island biogeography come from there?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>And did that trip lead specifically to any of your noted theories? Did the theory of island biogeography come from there?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"That came straight from there. When I met Robert MacArthur in the late \u201950s, we were both young professors, deeply worried about the status of our field, which was ecology and evolution. It was a golden age of biology, but of molecular and cell biology. It looked as though ecology, systematics, and biogeography would just be relegated to third-line status as far as universities like Harvard were concerned.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>That came straight from there. When I met Robert MacArthur in the late \u201950s, we were both young professors, deeply worried about the status of our field, which was ecology and evolution. It was a golden age of biology, but of molecular and cell biology. It looked as though ecology, systematics, and biogeography would just be relegated to third-line status as far as universities like Harvard were concerned.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>That came straight from there. When I met Robert MacArthur in the late \u201950s, we were both young professors, deeply worried about the status of our field, which was ecology and evolution. It was a golden age of biology, but of molecular and cell biology. It looked as though ecology, systematics, and biogeography would just be relegated to third-line status as far as universities like Harvard were concerned.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>That came straight from there. When I met Robert MacArthur in the late \u201950s, we were both young professors, deeply worried about the status of our field, which was ecology and evolution. It was a golden age of biology, but of molecular and cell biology. It looked as though ecology, systematics, and biogeography would just be relegated to third-line status as far as universities like Harvard were concerned.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"MacArthur and I hit it off very quickly. He had mathematical modeling ability and I was already publishing substantial papers on Asian and Pacific ants. We put our heads together and \u2026 developed the theory of island biogeography. It was immediately successful, because it hooked up ecology to conservation biology.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>MacArthur and I hit it off very quickly. He had mathematical modeling ability and I was already publishing substantial papers on Asian and Pacific ants. We put our heads together and \u2026 developed the theory of island biogeography. It was immediately successful, because it hooked up ecology to conservation biology.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>MacArthur and I hit it off very quickly. He had mathematical modeling ability and I was already publishing substantial papers on Asian and Pacific ants. We put our heads together and \u2026 developed the theory of island biogeography. It was immediately successful, because it hooked up ecology to conservation biology.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>MacArthur and I hit it off very quickly. He had mathematical modeling ability and I was already publishing substantial papers on Asian and Pacific ants. We put our heads together and \u2026 developed the theory of island biogeography. It was immediately successful, because it hooked up ecology to conservation biology.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"The world consists of islands, the reserves and the parks and the remnant patches of forest on the mountainside are islands. We saw the [theory as a] way to deal with the fate of species that were essentially confined to what we call habitat islands.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>The world consists of islands, the reserves and the parks and the remnant patches of forest on the mountainside are islands. We saw the [theory as a] way to deal with the fate of species that were essentially confined to what we call habitat islands.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>The world consists of islands, the reserves and the parks and the remnant patches of forest on the mountainside are islands. We saw the [theory as a] way to deal with the fate of species that were essentially confined to what we call habitat islands.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>The world consists of islands, the reserves and the parks and the remnant patches of forest on the mountainside are islands. We saw the [theory as a] way to deal with the fate of species that were essentially confined to what we call habitat islands.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/quote","attrs":{"value":"","citation":null,"textAlign":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"align":"","className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"\u2018I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.\u2019","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>\u2018I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.\u2019<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>\u2018I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.\u2019<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>\u2018I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.\u2019<\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><\/blockquote>\n","innerContent":["\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">","<\/blockquote>\n"],"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u2018I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>As forests have become more fragmented and habitats have become smaller, has the theory become more relevant?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>As forests have become more fragmented and habitats have become smaller, has the theory become more relevant?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>As forests have become more fragmented and habitats have become smaller, has the theory become more relevant?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>As forests have become more fragmented and habitats have become smaller, has the theory become more relevant?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Oh, vastly more relevant. It\u2019s one of the foundation pieces of conservation biology: how to understand why there are a certain number of species in a forest, maybe a forest on an island or maybe a fragment of forest on the continental coast. How to analyze it, find out what\u2019s happening, to look into particulars like how often species reach the island, how fast they\u2019re likely to be going extinct, how fast they might be evolving to create new species. All those factors are seen as basic in evaluating the status and the value of a particular reserve.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Oh, vastly more relevant. It\u2019s one of the foundation pieces of conservation biology: how to understand why there are a certain number of species in a forest, maybe a forest on an island or maybe a fragment of forest on the continental coast. How to analyze it, find out what\u2019s happening, to look into particulars like how often species reach the island, how fast they\u2019re likely to be going extinct, how fast they might be evolving to create new species. All those factors are seen as basic in evaluating the status and the value of a particular reserve.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Oh, vastly more relevant. It\u2019s one of the foundation pieces of conservation biology: how to understand why there are a certain number of species in a forest, maybe a forest on an island or maybe a fragment of forest on the continental coast. How to analyze it, find out what\u2019s happening, to look into particulars like how often species reach the island, how fast they\u2019re likely to be going extinct, how fast they might be evolving to create new species. All those factors are seen as basic in evaluating the status and the value of a particular reserve.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Oh, vastly more relevant. It\u2019s one of the foundation pieces of conservation biology: how to understand why there are a certain number of species in a forest, maybe a forest on an island or maybe a fragment of forest on the continental coast. How to analyze it, find out what\u2019s happening, to look into particulars like how often species reach the island, how fast they\u2019re likely to be going extinct, how fast they might be evolving to create new species. All those factors are seen as basic in evaluating the status and the value of a particular reserve.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>Clearly you\u2019ve made several seminal contributions to science \u2014 is there one that you feel proudest about or view as your crowning achievement?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>Clearly you\u2019ve made several seminal contributions to science \u2014 is there one that you feel proudest about or view as your crowning achievement?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>Clearly you\u2019ve made several seminal contributions to science \u2014 is there one that you feel proudest about or view as your crowning achievement?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Clearly you\u2019ve made several seminal contributions to science \u2014 is there one that you feel proudest about or view as your crowning achievement?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"By 50 years from now they\u2019ll say, \u201cLook, here\u2019s the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where that fellow \u2026 what was his name?\u201d [Laughs] I\u2019ve had several \u201caha!\u201d moments. Certainly one was the theory of island biogeography that came together in conversations with MacArthur.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>By 50 years from now they\u2019ll say, \u201cLook, here\u2019s the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where that fellow \u2026 what was his name?\u201d [Laughs] I\u2019ve had several \u201caha!\u201d moments. Certainly one was the theory of island biogeography that came together in conversations with MacArthur.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>By 50 years from now they\u2019ll say, \u201cLook, here\u2019s the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where that fellow \u2026 what was his name?\u201d [Laughs] I\u2019ve had several \u201caha!\u201d moments. Certainly one was the theory of island biogeography that came together in conversations with MacArthur.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>By 50 years from now they\u2019ll say, \u201cLook, here\u2019s the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where that fellow \u2026 what was his name?\u201d [Laughs] I\u2019ve had several \u201caha!\u201d moments. Certainly one was the theory of island biogeography that came together in conversations with MacArthur.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"The second one hasn\u2019t been noted very much but it was one of the reasons I got the National Medal of Science at a very young age, in 1976. That\u2019s the development of pheromone biology and studies of social insects, and also the very first theory of pheromone molecular evolution and dynamics. I published the theory<b> <\/b>in 1962. That was done with another colleague right here at Harvard, Bill Bossert. Bossert and I produced the first basic conception on what would be the optimal nature and size of pheromone molecules and how one could predict the rate and extent that they spread and how all this could be adaptive for the species. Oddly, pheromone research hasn\u2019t advanced very much. I have a feeling the reason for that \u2014 the theory I worked out with Bossert was not given much attention \u2014 is that about the only place people produce pheromones is in their armpit and that is not very interesting. [Laughs]","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>The second one hasn\u2019t been noted very much but it was one of the reasons I got the National Medal of Science at a very young age, in 1976. That\u2019s the development of pheromone biology and studies of social insects, and also the very first theory of pheromone molecular evolution and dynamics. I published the theory<b> <\/b>in 1962. That was done with another colleague right here at Harvard, Bill Bossert. Bossert and I produced the first basic conception on what would be the optimal nature and size of pheromone molecules and how one could predict the rate and extent that they spread and how all this could be adaptive for the species. Oddly, pheromone research hasn\u2019t advanced very much. I have a feeling the reason for that \u2014 the theory I worked out with Bossert was not given much attention \u2014 is that about the only place people produce pheromones is in their armpit and that is not very interesting. [Laughs]<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>The second one hasn\u2019t been noted very much but it was one of the reasons I got the National Medal of Science at a very young age, in 1976. That\u2019s the development of pheromone biology and studies of social insects, and also the very first theory of pheromone molecular evolution and dynamics. I published the theory<b> <\/b>in 1962. That was done with another colleague right here at Harvard, Bill Bossert. Bossert and I produced the first basic conception on what would be the optimal nature and size of pheromone molecules and how one could predict the rate and extent that they spread and how all this could be adaptive for the species. Oddly, pheromone research hasn\u2019t advanced very much. I have a feeling the reason for that \u2014 the theory I worked out with Bossert was not given much attention \u2014 is that about the only place people produce pheromones is in their armpit and that is not very interesting. [Laughs]<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>The second one hasn\u2019t been noted very much but it was one of the reasons I got the National Medal of Science at a very young age, in 1976. That\u2019s the development of pheromone biology and studies of social insects, and also the very first theory of pheromone molecular evolution and dynamics. I published the theory<b> <\/b>in 1962. That was done with another colleague right here at Harvard, Bill Bossert. Bossert and I produced the first basic conception on what would be the optimal nature and size of pheromone molecules and how one could predict the rate and extent that they spread and how all this could be adaptive for the species. Oddly, pheromone research hasn\u2019t advanced very much. I have a feeling the reason for that \u2014 the theory I worked out with Bossert was not given much attention \u2014 is that about the only place people produce pheromones is in their armpit and that is not very interesting. [Laughs]<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Third happy \u2014 aha! \u2014 moment. The one time I couldn\u2019t sleep at night was after making the first fire ant pheromone discovery. I did it here in the lab with fire ants. I decided to use a trail pheromone. When I hit the tiny gland that produces it in the rear part of the ant, I got a completely surprising response. The ants followed it, but it activated them in a variety of other ways. It excited them. It caused them to start communicating with other ants that followed. The fire ant trail substance was the first glandular pheromone source discovered in insects, or at least in social insects. Subsequent research showed that it was a blend of pheromones. So what I was looking at was a variety of messages sent simultaneously among the ants.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Third happy \u2014 aha! \u2014 moment. The one time I couldn\u2019t sleep at night was after making the first fire ant pheromone discovery. I did it here in the lab with fire ants. I decided to use a trail pheromone. When I hit the tiny gland that produces it in the rear part of the ant, I got a completely surprising response. The ants followed it, but it activated them in a variety of other ways. It excited them. It caused them to start communicating with other ants that followed. The fire ant trail substance was the first glandular pheromone source discovered in insects, or at least in social insects. Subsequent research showed that it was a blend of pheromones. So what I was looking at was a variety of messages sent simultaneously among the ants.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Third happy \u2014 aha! \u2014 moment. The one time I couldn\u2019t sleep at night was after making the first fire ant pheromone discovery. I did it here in the lab with fire ants. I decided to use a trail pheromone. When I hit the tiny gland that produces it in the rear part of the ant, I got a completely surprising response. The ants followed it, but it activated them in a variety of other ways. It excited them. It caused them to start communicating with other ants that followed. The fire ant trail substance was the first glandular pheromone source discovered in insects, or at least in social insects. Subsequent research showed that it was a blend of pheromones. So what I was looking at was a variety of messages sent simultaneously among the ants.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Third happy \u2014 aha! \u2014 moment. The one time I couldn\u2019t sleep at night was after making the first fire ant pheromone discovery. I did it here in the lab with fire ants. I decided to use a trail pheromone. When I hit the tiny gland that produces it in the rear part of the ant, I got a completely surprising response. The ants followed it, but it activated them in a variety of other ways. It excited them. It caused them to start communicating with other ants that followed. The fire ant trail substance was the first glandular pheromone source discovered in insects, or at least in social insects. Subsequent research showed that it was a blend of pheromones. So what I was looking at was a variety of messages sent simultaneously among the ants.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"One aha! moment, sort of a lowercase aha!, was the discovery and description of the first ant of Mesozoic age, in other words, ancestral to modern ants. I knew that ants must have originated in the age of reptiles, back in the Mesozoic, but the earliest specimens we had were from the age of mammals, back 60 million years. So all of us were waiting for the discovery of a Mesozoic ant, when two of them were found in one piece of amber. I\u2019d like to tell you it was found on an upper branch of the Amazon River, but it wasn\u2019t; it was on the New Jersey shore [laughs] \u2014 in a 90-million-year-old deposit of amber and woody materials. Out of that came a perfect specimen in a perfect piece of amber, clear as glass with two ants in it. That was a thrilling moment to put it under a microscope and say, \u201cOK, guys, we\u2019ve already<b> <\/b>made it to 60 million and now we\u2019re going to go all the way back to 90 million.\u201d And the darn things fitted exactly how we predicted if ants evolved from wasps.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>One aha! moment, sort of a lowercase aha!, was the discovery and description of the first ant of Mesozoic age, in other words, ancestral to modern ants. I knew that ants must have originated in the age of reptiles, back in the Mesozoic, but the earliest specimens we had were from the age of mammals, back 60 million years. So all of us were waiting for the discovery of a Mesozoic ant, when two of them were found in one piece of amber. I\u2019d like to tell you it was found on an upper branch of the Amazon River, but it wasn\u2019t; it was on the New Jersey shore [laughs] \u2014 in a 90-million-year-old deposit of amber and woody materials. Out of that came a perfect specimen in a perfect piece of amber, clear as glass with two ants in it. That was a thrilling moment to put it under a microscope and say, \u201cOK, guys, we\u2019ve already<b> <\/b>made it to 60 million and now we\u2019re going to go all the way back to 90 million.\u201d And the darn things fitted exactly how we predicted if ants evolved from wasps.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>One aha! moment, sort of a lowercase aha!, was the discovery and description of the first ant of Mesozoic age, in other words, ancestral to modern ants. I knew that ants must have originated in the age of reptiles, back in the Mesozoic, but the earliest specimens we had were from the age of mammals, back 60 million years. So all of us were waiting for the discovery of a Mesozoic ant, when two of them were found in one piece of amber. I\u2019d like to tell you it was found on an upper branch of the Amazon River, but it wasn\u2019t; it was on the New Jersey shore [laughs] \u2014 in a 90-million-year-old deposit of amber and woody materials. Out of that came a perfect specimen in a perfect piece of amber, clear as glass with two ants in it. That was a thrilling moment to put it under a microscope and say, \u201cOK, guys, we\u2019ve already<b> <\/b>made it to 60 million and now we\u2019re going to go all the way back to 90 million.\u201d And the darn things fitted exactly how we predicted if ants evolved from wasps.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>One aha! moment, sort of a lowercase aha!, was the discovery and description of the first ant of Mesozoic age, in other words, ancestral to modern ants. I knew that ants must have originated in the age of reptiles, back in the Mesozoic, but the earliest specimens we had were from the age of mammals, back 60 million years. So all of us were waiting for the discovery of a Mesozoic ant, when two of them were found in one piece of amber. I\u2019d like to tell you it was found on an upper branch of the Amazon River, but it wasn\u2019t; it was on the New Jersey shore [laughs] \u2014 in a 90-million-year-old deposit of amber and woody materials. Out of that came a perfect specimen in a perfect piece of amber, clear as glass with two ants in it. That was a thrilling moment to put it under a microscope and say, \u201cOK, guys, we\u2019ve already<b> <\/b>made it to 60 million and now we\u2019re going to go all the way back to 90 million.\u201d And the darn things fitted exactly how we predicted if ants evolved from wasps.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>When was that?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>When was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>When was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>When was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"That was the late \u201960s.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>That was the late \u201960s.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>That was the late \u201960s.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>That was the late \u201960s.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"And finally, a drawn-out aha!, the one that really caused quite an uproar here at Harvard, was when I was building the field of sociobiology, first with the book called \u201cThe Insect Societies,\u201d in 1971, and then \u201cSociobiology: The New Synthesis.\u201d","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>And finally, a drawn-out aha!, the one that really caused quite an uproar here at Harvard, was when I was building the field of sociobiology, first with the book called \u201cThe Insect Societies,\u201d in 1971, and then \u201cSociobiology: The New Synthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>And finally, a drawn-out aha!, the one that really caused quite an uproar here at Harvard, was when I was building the field of sociobiology, first with the book called \u201cThe Insect Societies,\u201d in 1971, and then \u201cSociobiology: The New Synthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>And finally, a drawn-out aha!, the one that really caused quite an uproar here at Harvard, was when I was building the field of sociobiology, first with the book called \u201cThe Insect Societies,\u201d in 1971, and then \u201cSociobiology: The New Synthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Sociobiology was far more than what many of its critics wanted to call it: just the belief that human beings have genetic-based instincts. Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior in all kinds of animals, and that\u2019s how I developed it in those two books. It was very simple. I did say that maybe the same principles that we\u2019re learning from comparative studies of social behavior and the evolution of social behavior in animals might apply to human beings. But if it applied to human beings, the only way it can be applied meaningfully is that human beings have instincts. We have drives that are inborn, that people inherit, and there may be variation among people. I stepped into a minefield by finishing this big book, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d with a chapter saying how it could be applied to people. I tried to be cautious. I should have been more politically careful, by saying this does not imply racism, it does not imply sexism, I\u2019m not trying to defend capitalism, so don\u2019t drop the world on top of me. If I\u2019d added that in the book, then I might have gotten off a little easier.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Sociobiology was far more than what many of its critics wanted to call it: just the belief that human beings have genetic-based instincts. Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior in all kinds of animals, and that\u2019s how I developed it in those two books. It was very simple. I did say that maybe the same principles that we\u2019re learning from comparative studies of social behavior and the evolution of social behavior in animals might apply to human beings. But if it applied to human beings, the only way it can be applied meaningfully is that human beings have instincts. We have drives that are inborn, that people inherit, and there may be variation among people. I stepped into a minefield by finishing this big book, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d with a chapter saying how it could be applied to people. I tried to be cautious. I should have been more politically careful, by saying this does not imply racism, it does not imply sexism, I\u2019m not trying to defend capitalism, so don\u2019t drop the world on top of me. If I\u2019d added that in the book, then I might have gotten off a little easier.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Sociobiology was far more than what many of its critics wanted to call it: just the belief that human beings have genetic-based instincts. Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior in all kinds of animals, and that\u2019s how I developed it in those two books. It was very simple. I did say that maybe the same principles that we\u2019re learning from comparative studies of social behavior and the evolution of social behavior in animals might apply to human beings. But if it applied to human beings, the only way it can be applied meaningfully is that human beings have instincts. We have drives that are inborn, that people inherit, and there may be variation among people. I stepped into a minefield by finishing this big book, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d with a chapter saying how it could be applied to people. I tried to be cautious. I should have been more politically careful, by saying this does not imply racism, it does not imply sexism, I\u2019m not trying to defend capitalism, so don\u2019t drop the world on top of me. If I\u2019d added that in the book, then I might have gotten off a little easier.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Sociobiology was far more than what many of its critics wanted to call it: just the belief that human beings have genetic-based instincts. Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior in all kinds of animals, and that\u2019s how I developed it in those two books. It was very simple. I did say that maybe the same principles that we\u2019re learning from comparative studies of social behavior and the evolution of social behavior in animals might apply to human beings. But if it applied to human beings, the only way it can be applied meaningfully is that human beings have instincts. We have drives that are inborn, that people inherit, and there may be variation among people. I stepped into a minefield by finishing this big book, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d with a chapter saying how it could be applied to people. I tried to be cautious. I should have been more politically careful, by saying this does not imply racism, it does not imply sexism, I\u2019m not trying to defend capitalism, so don\u2019t drop the world on top of me. If I\u2019d added that in the book, then I might have gotten off a little easier.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"In the \u201960s and \u201970s it became almost dogma \u2014 it <i>was<\/i> a dogma \u2014 to believe that the human brain was a tabula rasa, a blank slate. I don\u2019t think scholars in this generation, even those of middle age, can appreciate how stern was the prohibition against believing that human behavior was influenced by genes in any manner whatsoever. The only acceptable view was that the brain was a blank slate and what humanity does and humanity feels and what societies end up becoming is strictly a matter of choice and is determined by our history, particularly<b> <\/b>by the culture we\u2019re born with. We can design a much more perfect society if we use our reason and train the brain accordingly. That was the belief in the social sciences. It was also the belief of the \u2014 how shall I put it \u2014 the far left among some scientists, including two of my more notable colleagues here at Harvard, Richard Lewontin and Stephen J. Gould. They were really incensed that a colleague of theirs would deviate so far from what was the needed ideology, the political ideology, to make social progress. And they were marvelously sophisticated Marxists, with well-reasoned ideas of how to blend socialism and biology.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>In the \u201960s and \u201970s it became almost dogma \u2014 it <i>was<\/i> a dogma \u2014 to believe that the human brain was a tabula rasa, a blank slate. I don\u2019t think scholars in this generation, even those of middle age, can appreciate how stern was the prohibition against believing that human behavior was influenced by genes in any manner whatsoever. The only acceptable view was that the brain was a blank slate and what humanity does and humanity feels and what societies end up becoming is strictly a matter of choice and is determined by our history, particularly<b> <\/b>by the culture we\u2019re born with. We can design a much more perfect society if we use our reason and train the brain accordingly. That was the belief in the social sciences. It was also the belief of the \u2014 how shall I put it \u2014 the far left among some scientists, including two of my more notable colleagues here at Harvard, Richard Lewontin and Stephen J. Gould. They were really incensed that a colleague of theirs would deviate so far from what was the needed ideology, the political ideology, to make social progress. And they were marvelously sophisticated Marxists, with well-reasoned ideas of how to blend socialism and biology.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>In the \u201960s and \u201970s it became almost dogma \u2014 it <i>was<\/i> a dogma \u2014 to believe that the human brain was a tabula rasa, a blank slate. I don\u2019t think scholars in this generation, even those of middle age, can appreciate how stern was the prohibition against believing that human behavior was influenced by genes in any manner whatsoever. The only acceptable view was that the brain was a blank slate and what humanity does and humanity feels and what societies end up becoming is strictly a matter of choice and is determined by our history, particularly<b> <\/b>by the culture we\u2019re born with. We can design a much more perfect society if we use our reason and train the brain accordingly. That was the belief in the social sciences. It was also the belief of the \u2014 how shall I put it \u2014 the far left among some scientists, including two of my more notable colleagues here at Harvard, Richard Lewontin and Stephen J. Gould. They were really incensed that a colleague of theirs would deviate so far from what was the needed ideology, the political ideology, to make social progress. And they were marvelously sophisticated Marxists, with well-reasoned ideas of how to blend socialism and biology.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>In the \u201960s and \u201970s it became almost dogma \u2014 it <i>was<\/i> a dogma \u2014 to believe that the human brain was a tabula rasa, a blank slate. I don\u2019t think scholars in this generation, even those of middle age, can appreciate how stern was the prohibition against believing that human behavior was influenced by genes in any manner whatsoever. The only acceptable view was that the brain was a blank slate and what humanity does and humanity feels and what societies end up becoming is strictly a matter of choice and is determined by our history, particularly<b> <\/b>by the culture we\u2019re born with. We can design a much more perfect society if we use our reason and train the brain accordingly. That was the belief in the social sciences. It was also the belief of the \u2014 how shall I put it \u2014 the far left among some scientists, including two of my more notable colleagues here at Harvard, Richard Lewontin and Stephen J. Gould. They were really incensed that a colleague of theirs would deviate so far from what was the needed ideology, the political ideology, to make social progress. And they were marvelously sophisticated Marxists, with well-reasoned ideas of how to blend socialism and biology.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Harvard faculty and the students \u2014 partly as a result of the convulsions of the \u201960s \u2014 were far left and very few would openly defy them. Being from Alabama, I was expected, I think, to be a conservative. \u00a0And I can tell you now, thinking back, I was really neither. I was at neither end of the spectrum. I was an innocent sociobiologist.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Harvard faculty and the students \u2014 partly as a result of the convulsions of the \u201960s \u2014 were far left and very few would openly defy them. Being from Alabama, I was expected, I think, to be a conservative.  And I can tell you now, thinking back, I was really neither. I was at neither end of the spectrum. I was an innocent sociobiologist.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Harvard faculty and the students \u2014 partly as a result of the convulsions of the \u201960s \u2014 were far left and very few would openly defy them. Being from Alabama, I was expected, I think, to be a conservative.  And I can tell you now, thinking back, I was really neither. I was at neither end of the spectrum. I was an innocent sociobiologist.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Harvard faculty and the students \u2014 partly as a result of the convulsions of the \u201960s \u2014 were far left and very few would openly defy them. Being from Alabama, I was expected, I think, to be a conservative.  And I can tell you now, thinking back, I was really neither. I was at neither end of the spectrum. I was an innocent sociobiologist.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I thought that this was a great idea. I saw all sorts of possibilities for building a sociobiology that could then be picked up by social scientists. And I really was so naive as to think my colleagues in the social sciences would be grateful to me [laughs] for having provided them with a whole different armamentarium for their theories on<b> <\/b>the origins of human behavior. What I got was mostly buckshot [laughs]. That has changed now, but that was the aha! moment.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I thought that this was a great idea. I saw all sorts of possibilities for building a sociobiology that could then be picked up by social scientists. And I really was so naive as to think my colleagues in the social sciences would be grateful to me [laughs] for having provided them with a whole different armamentarium for their theories on<b> <\/b>the origins of human behavior. What I got was mostly buckshot [laughs]. That has changed now, but that was the aha! moment.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I thought that this was a great idea. I saw all sorts of possibilities for building a sociobiology that could then be picked up by social scientists. And I really was so naive as to think my colleagues in the social sciences would be grateful to me [laughs] for having provided them with a whole different armamentarium for their theories on<b> <\/b>the origins of human behavior. What I got was mostly buckshot [laughs]. That has changed now, but that was the aha! moment.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I thought that this was a great idea. I saw all sorts of possibilities for building a sociobiology that could then be picked up by social scientists. And I really was so naive as to think my colleagues in the social sciences would be grateful to me [laughs] for having provided them with a whole different armamentarium for their theories on<b> <\/b>the origins of human behavior. What I got was mostly buckshot [laughs]. That has changed now, but that was the aha! moment.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>Were you surprised at the response? Did you have no idea it would be controversial?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>Were you surprised at the response? Did you have no idea it would be controversial?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>Were you surprised at the response? Did you have no idea it would be controversial?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Were you surprised at the response? Did you have no idea it would be controversial?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I had no idea. I really wish I could say I knew it was coming, but it really blindsided me. And it took me a while to figure out how to respond.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I had no idea. I really wish I could say I knew it was coming, but it really blindsided me. And it took me a while to figure out how to respond.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I had no idea. I really wish I could say I knew it was coming, but it really blindsided me. And it took me a while to figure out how to respond.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I had no idea. I really wish I could say I knew it was coming, but it really blindsided me. And it took me a while to figure out how to respond.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>Did you have an emotional reaction? Did you feel hurt or was it more intellectual?<i><br><\/i><\/strong><i> <\/i>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>Did you have an emotional reaction? Did you feel hurt or was it more intellectual?<i><br><\/i><\/strong><i> <\/i><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>Did you have an emotional reaction? Did you feel hurt or was it more intellectual?<i><br><\/i><\/strong><i> <\/i><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Did you have an emotional reaction? Did you feel hurt or was it more intellectual?<i><br><\/i><\/strong><i> <\/i><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"It was more intellectual. The first time I saw one of these counterattacks appear in The New York Review of Books, I<b> <\/b>saw I was going to win this one. With the reasoning and evidence, I felt confident. It was science versus political ideology.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>It was more intellectual. The first time I saw one of these counterattacks appear in The New York Review of Books, I<b> <\/b>saw I was going to win this one. With the reasoning and evidence, I felt confident. It was science versus political ideology.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>It was more intellectual. The first time I saw one of these counterattacks appear in The New York Review of Books, I<b> <\/b>saw I was going to win this one. With the reasoning and evidence, I felt confident. It was science versus political ideology.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>It was more intellectual. The first time I saw one of these counterattacks appear in The New York Review of Books, I<b> <\/b>saw I was going to win this one. With the reasoning and evidence, I felt confident. It was science versus political ideology.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"But I really was upset at being called a racist, promoting racism and sexism. I was accused of trying to reintroduce a retrograde, outmoded, dangerous philosophy. There was nothing in \u201cSociobiology\u201d to suggest such a thing. The words had to be taken out of context and tweaked.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>But I really was upset at being called a racist, promoting racism and sexism. I was accused of trying to reintroduce a retrograde, outmoded, dangerous philosophy. There was nothing in \u201cSociobiology\u201d to suggest such a thing. The words had to be taken out of context and tweaked.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>But I really was upset at being called a racist, promoting racism and sexism. I was accused of trying to reintroduce a retrograde, outmoded, dangerous philosophy. There was nothing in \u201cSociobiology\u201d to suggest such a thing. The words had to be taken out of context and tweaked.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>But I really was upset at being called a racist, promoting racism and sexism. I was accused of trying to reintroduce a retrograde, outmoded, dangerous philosophy. There was nothing in \u201cSociobiology\u201d to suggest such a thing. The words had to be taken out of context and tweaked.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"On one occasion, I had a little mob in Harvard Square parading and protesting and holding placards demanding that Harvard dismiss me. On another occasion, when I was to give a lecture at the Science Center, a crowd of protesters gathered at the entrance with signs and shouts and chants and so on. I was ushered in through the rear by University police. My class was disrupted at least once. Not seriously, but yeah, that\u2019s annoying. Looking back at that now, it was a very strange period.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>On one occasion, I had a little mob in Harvard Square parading and protesting and holding placards demanding that Harvard dismiss me. On another occasion, when I was to give a lecture at the Science Center, a crowd of protesters gathered at the entrance with signs and shouts and chants and so on. I was ushered in through the rear by University police. My class was disrupted at least once. Not seriously, but yeah, that\u2019s annoying. Looking back at that now, it was a very strange period.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>On one occasion, I had a little mob in Harvard Square parading and protesting and holding placards demanding that Harvard dismiss me. On another occasion, when I was to give a lecture at the Science Center, a crowd of protesters gathered at the entrance with signs and shouts and chants and so on. I was ushered in through the rear by University police. My class was disrupted at least once. Not seriously, but yeah, that\u2019s annoying. Looking back at that now, it was a very strange period.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>On one occasion, I had a little mob in Harvard Square parading and protesting and holding placards demanding that Harvard dismiss me. On another occasion, when I was to give a lecture at the Science Center, a crowd of protesters gathered at the entrance with signs and shouts and chants and so on. I was ushered in through the rear by University police. My class was disrupted at least once. Not seriously, but yeah, that\u2019s annoying. Looking back at that now, it was a very strange period.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"This created a sensation, but at least students were exposed to new<b> <\/b>ideas. I say to myself to this day, \u201cIs this not what a university is for?\u201d This is what a university is supposed to be doing.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>This created a sensation, but at least students were exposed to new<b> <\/b>ideas. I say to myself to this day, \u201cIs this not what a university is for?\u201d This is what a university is supposed to be doing.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>This created a sensation, but at least students were exposed to new<b> <\/b>ideas. I say to myself to this day, \u201cIs this not what a university is for?\u201d This is what a university is supposed to be doing.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>This created a sensation, but at least students were exposed to new<b> <\/b>ideas. I say to myself to this day, \u201cIs this not what a university is for?\u201d This is what a university is supposed to be doing.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"align":"none","id":154922,"sizeSlug":"full","className":"is-resized","creditText":"Harvard University","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/wilson-570.jpg","alt":"","caption":"Wilson, in his office at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, writes or does research daily.\t\t\t","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/wilson-570.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-154922\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Wilson, in his office at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, writes or does research daily.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/wilson-570.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-154922\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Wilson, in his office at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, writes or does research daily.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/wilson-570.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-154922\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Wilson, in his office at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, writes or does research daily.\t\t\t<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Harvard University<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>How about mistakes along the way? Are there things that you regret or things you might have done differently?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>How about mistakes along the way? Are there things that you regret or things you might have done differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>How about mistakes along the way? Are there things that you regret or things you might have done differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>How about mistakes along the way? Are there things that you regret or things you might have done differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"That was one of them. When I was writing \u201cSociobiology,\u201d if I had to do it over again, I would have written a solid piece in that infamous final chapter and said that it really tells us nothing about the best political system or correct ideology. This is just knowledge, through which we can acquire a view of the human condition. We can acquire what we did not have before and this has to be useful.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>That was one of them. When I was writing \u201cSociobiology,\u201d if I had to do it over again, I would have written a solid piece in that infamous final chapter and said that it really tells us nothing about the best political system or correct ideology. This is just knowledge, through which we can acquire a view of the human condition. We can acquire what we did not have before and this has to be useful.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>That was one of them. When I was writing \u201cSociobiology,\u201d if I had to do it over again, I would have written a solid piece in that infamous final chapter and said that it really tells us nothing about the best political system or correct ideology. This is just knowledge, through which we can acquire a view of the human condition. We can acquire what we did not have before and this has to be useful.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>That was one of them. When I was writing \u201cSociobiology,\u201d if I had to do it over again, I would have written a solid piece in that infamous final chapter and said that it really tells us nothing about the best political system or correct ideology. This is just knowledge, through which we can acquire a view of the human condition. We can acquire what we did not have before and this has to be useful.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>What is the strongest argument today that your thoughts on sociobiology were right? I hear a lot of things related to the obesity epidemic, people trying to explain why we behave the way we do.<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>What is the strongest argument today that your thoughts on sociobiology were right? I hear a lot of things related to the obesity epidemic, people trying to explain why we behave the way we do.<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>What is the strongest argument today that your thoughts on sociobiology were right? I hear a lot of things related to the obesity epidemic, people trying to explain why we behave the way we do.<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What is the strongest argument today that your thoughts on sociobiology were right? I hear a lot of things related to the obesity epidemic, people trying to explain why we behave the way we do.<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"That book came out in \u201975, and in the early \u201980s, the field of evolutionary psychology spun off. My colleagues working in the social sciences and psychology who created evolutionary psychology avoided the word \u201csociobiology\u201d \u2014 some of them told me this. They wanted to use another word that wouldn\u2019t be tarnished from the beginning. To this day \u201csociobiology\u201d is only sparingly used as an expression because people are still a little afraid of it. In 1978, in the midst of all the tumult \u2014 people smile when I say \u201ctumult\u201d in talking about academics hitting one another with beanbags; it really wasn\u2019t quite the same as a civil war \u2014 I said to myself, \u201cI have to write a book that will do what I should have done in \u2018Sociobiology.\u2019\u201d That is, explain how I view human behavior and what the applications of sociobiology could be and what the possibilities of it are.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>That book came out in \u201975, and in the early \u201980s, the field of evolutionary psychology spun off. My colleagues working in the social sciences and psychology who created evolutionary psychology avoided the word \u201csociobiology\u201d \u2014 some of them told me this. They wanted to use another word that wouldn\u2019t be tarnished from the beginning. To this day \u201csociobiology\u201d is only sparingly used as an expression because people are still a little afraid of it. In 1978, in the midst of all the tumult \u2014 people smile when I say \u201ctumult\u201d in talking about academics hitting one another with beanbags; it really wasn\u2019t quite the same as a civil war \u2014 I said to myself, \u201cI have to write a book that will do what I should have done in \u2018Sociobiology.\u2019\u201d That is, explain how I view human behavior and what the applications of sociobiology could be and what the possibilities of it are.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>That book came out in \u201975, and in the early \u201980s, the field of evolutionary psychology spun off. My colleagues working in the social sciences and psychology who created evolutionary psychology avoided the word \u201csociobiology\u201d \u2014 some of them told me this. They wanted to use another word that wouldn\u2019t be tarnished from the beginning. To this day \u201csociobiology\u201d is only sparingly used as an expression because people are still a little afraid of it. In 1978, in the midst of all the tumult \u2014 people smile when I say \u201ctumult\u201d in talking about academics hitting one another with beanbags; it really wasn\u2019t quite the same as a civil war \u2014 I said to myself, \u201cI have to write a book that will do what I should have done in \u2018Sociobiology.\u2019\u201d That is, explain how I view human behavior and what the applications of sociobiology could be and what the possibilities of it are.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>That book came out in \u201975, and in the early \u201980s, the field of evolutionary psychology spun off. My colleagues working in the social sciences and psychology who created evolutionary psychology avoided the word \u201csociobiology\u201d \u2014 some of them told me this. They wanted to use another word that wouldn\u2019t be tarnished from the beginning. To this day \u201csociobiology\u201d is only sparingly used as an expression because people are still a little afraid of it. In 1978, in the midst of all the tumult \u2014 people smile when I say \u201ctumult\u201d in talking about academics hitting one another with beanbags; it really wasn\u2019t quite the same as a civil war \u2014 I said to myself, \u201cI have to write a book that will do what I should have done in \u2018Sociobiology.\u2019\u201d That is, explain how I view human behavior and what the applications of sociobiology could be and what the possibilities of it are.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I think that it\u2019s fair to say the work I produced was the founding book of evolutionary psychology, although it wasn\u2019t until the next decade that the term evolutionary psychology began to be used. But the book, \u201cOn Human Nature,\u201d in 1978 won a Pulitzer Prize and, as we say in a Southeastern Conference football game when our team scores on the opponent\u2019s field, \u201cThat has a way of quieting the crowd.\u201d","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I think that it\u2019s fair to say the work I produced was the founding book of evolutionary psychology, although it wasn\u2019t until the next decade that the term evolutionary psychology began to be used. But the book, \u201cOn Human Nature,\u201d in 1978 won a Pulitzer Prize and, as we say in a Southeastern Conference football game when our team scores on the opponent\u2019s field, \u201cThat has a way of quieting the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I think that it\u2019s fair to say the work I produced was the founding book of evolutionary psychology, although it wasn\u2019t until the next decade that the term evolutionary psychology began to be used. But the book, \u201cOn Human Nature,\u201d in 1978 won a Pulitzer Prize and, as we say in a Southeastern Conference football game when our team scores on the opponent\u2019s field, \u201cThat has a way of quieting the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I think that it\u2019s fair to say the work I produced was the founding book of evolutionary psychology, although it wasn\u2019t until the next decade that the term evolutionary psychology began to be used. But the book, \u201cOn Human Nature,\u201d in 1978 won a Pulitzer Prize and, as we say in a Southeastern Conference football game when our team scores on the opponent\u2019s field, \u201cThat has a way of quieting the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>What do you think of an entomologist winning two Pulitzer Prizes? Is that something you could have envisioned when you were a young boy?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>What do you think of an entomologist winning two Pulitzer Prizes? Is that something you could have envisioned when you were a young boy?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>What do you think of an entomologist winning two Pulitzer Prizes? Is that something you could have envisioned when you were a young boy?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What do you think of an entomologist winning two Pulitzer Prizes? Is that something you could have envisioned when you were a young boy?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I think it\u2019s bizarre [laughs]. It was luck.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I think it\u2019s bizarre [laughs]. It was luck.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I think it\u2019s bizarre [laughs]. It was luck.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I think it\u2019s bizarre [laughs]. It was luck.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"The second Pulitzer was a big, comprehensive book Bert H\u00f6lldobler and I put together. Bert and I worked together for a dozen years in the laboratory section of the MCZ [Museum of Comparative Zoology] and our collaboration was very fruitful. We had different talents and different approaches. Bert brought in rigorous methods of investigation by stepwise experimentation. I brought into the mix the scientific natural history. I knew the ants; I knew what was interesting to look at. We published a lot. And then Bert couldn\u2019t get enough of the support he needed and the University of W\u00fcrzburg offered him a million dollar prize to create anything he wanted to create. And so off Bert went. But before he left, we said, \u201cLook, between the two of us, we know everything there is to know about ants.\u201d Nobody could say that today because the field, myrmecology, has grown exponentially, but you could say it then. And we said, \u201cLet\u2019s write a book that has everything known about ants.\u201d And to my astonishment, it was given the Pulitzer. It was also the only book of science-meant-for-scientists to win the prize. We didn\u2019t write this for the literary world \u2014 we wrote it for scientists. But we did our best job of writing and illustrating and so on.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>The second Pulitzer was a big, comprehensive book Bert H\u00f6lldobler and I put together. Bert and I worked together for a dozen years in the laboratory section of the MCZ [Museum of Comparative Zoology] and our collaboration was very fruitful. We had different talents and different approaches. Bert brought in rigorous methods of investigation by stepwise experimentation. I brought into the mix the scientific natural history. I knew the ants; I knew what was interesting to look at. We published a lot. And then Bert couldn\u2019t get enough of the support he needed and the University of W\u00fcrzburg offered him a million dollar prize to create anything he wanted to create. And so off Bert went. But before he left, we said, \u201cLook, between the two of us, we know everything there is to know about ants.\u201d Nobody could say that today because the field, myrmecology, has grown exponentially, but you could say it then. And we said, \u201cLet\u2019s write a book that has everything known about ants.\u201d And to my astonishment, it was given the Pulitzer. It was also the only book of science-meant-for-scientists to win the prize. We didn\u2019t write this for the literary world \u2014 we wrote it for scientists. But we did our best job of writing and illustrating and so on.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>The second Pulitzer was a big, comprehensive book Bert H\u00f6lldobler and I put together. Bert and I worked together for a dozen years in the laboratory section of the MCZ [Museum of Comparative Zoology] and our collaboration was very fruitful. We had different talents and different approaches. Bert brought in rigorous methods of investigation by stepwise experimentation. I brought into the mix the scientific natural history. I knew the ants; I knew what was interesting to look at. We published a lot. And then Bert couldn\u2019t get enough of the support he needed and the University of W\u00fcrzburg offered him a million dollar prize to create anything he wanted to create. And so off Bert went. But before he left, we said, \u201cLook, between the two of us, we know everything there is to know about ants.\u201d Nobody could say that today because the field, myrmecology, has grown exponentially, but you could say it then. And we said, \u201cLet\u2019s write a book that has everything known about ants.\u201d And to my astonishment, it was given the Pulitzer. It was also the only book of science-meant-for-scientists to win the prize. We didn\u2019t write this for the literary world \u2014 we wrote it for scientists. But we did our best job of writing and illustrating and so on.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>The second Pulitzer was a big, comprehensive book Bert H\u00f6lldobler and I put together. Bert and I worked together for a dozen years in the laboratory section of the MCZ [Museum of Comparative Zoology] and our collaboration was very fruitful. We had different talents and different approaches. Bert brought in rigorous methods of investigation by stepwise experimentation. I brought into the mix the scientific natural history. I knew the ants; I knew what was interesting to look at. We published a lot. And then Bert couldn\u2019t get enough of the support he needed and the University of W\u00fcrzburg offered him a million dollar prize to create anything he wanted to create. And so off Bert went. But before he left, we said, \u201cLook, between the two of us, we know everything there is to know about ants.\u201d Nobody could say that today because the field, myrmecology, has grown exponentially, but you could say it then. And we said, \u201cLet\u2019s write a book that has everything known about ants.\u201d And to my astonishment, it was given the Pulitzer. It was also the only book of science-meant-for-scientists to win the prize. We didn\u2019t write this for the literary world \u2014 we wrote it for scientists. But we did our best job of writing and illustrating and so on.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>What is your philosophy of writing? Do you have writing habits? Do you write every day?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>What is your philosophy of writing? Do you have writing habits? Do you write every day?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>What is your philosophy of writing? Do you have writing habits? Do you write every day?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What is your philosophy of writing? Do you have writing habits? Do you write every day?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Every day.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Every day.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Every day.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Every day.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>Do you love it or is it a chore sometimes?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>Do you love it or is it a chore sometimes?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>Do you love it or is it a chore sometimes?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Do you love it or is it a chore sometimes?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I love it. You know, like a shark, unless you swim you sink? I have that feeling. I remember one of the great pianists once said about practicing, \u201cI miss a week of practice and the audience notices. I miss a day, and I notice.\u201d It\u2019s just what I love to do. I love the research, I love the study, I love the quiet thought, and I like writing. I just write or conduct research every day. Always there\u2019s something new to write about.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I love it. You know, like a shark, unless you swim you sink? I have that feeling. I remember one of the great pianists once said about practicing, \u201cI miss a week of practice and the audience notices. I miss a day, and I notice.\u201d It\u2019s just what I love to do. I love the research, I love the study, I love the quiet thought, and I like writing. I just write or conduct research every day. Always there\u2019s something new to write about.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I love it. You know, like a shark, unless you swim you sink? I have that feeling. I remember one of the great pianists once said about practicing, \u201cI miss a week of practice and the audience notices. I miss a day, and I notice.\u201d It\u2019s just what I love to do. I love the research, I love the study, I love the quiet thought, and I like writing. I just write or conduct research every day. Always there\u2019s something new to write about.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I love it. You know, like a shark, unless you swim you sink? I have that feeling. I remember one of the great pianists once said about practicing, \u201cI miss a week of practice and the audience notices. I miss a day, and I notice.\u201d It\u2019s just what I love to do. I love the research, I love the study, I love the quiet thought, and I like writing. I just write or conduct research every day. Always there\u2019s something new to write about.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>Do you do it here or do you have a study at home?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>Do you do it here or do you have a study at home?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>Do you do it here or do you have a study at home?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Do you do it here or do you have a study at home?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"Mostly, I do it at home now. And I write longhand on yellow, lined legal paper and Kathy Horton is the reason I can do that. She\u2019s been working with me 47 years and she knows everything, knows everybody.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>Mostly, I do it at home now. And I write longhand on yellow, lined legal paper and Kathy Horton is the reason I can do that. She\u2019s been working with me 47 years and she knows everything, knows everybody.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>Mostly, I do it at home now. And I write longhand on yellow, lined legal paper and Kathy Horton is the reason I can do that. She\u2019s been working with me 47 years and she knows everything, knows everybody.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>Mostly, I do it at home now. And I write longhand on yellow, lined legal paper and Kathy Horton is the reason I can do that. She\u2019s been working with me 47 years and she knows everything, knows everybody.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>Safe to say she\u2019s deciphered your handwriting by now?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>Safe to say she\u2019s deciphered your handwriting by now?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>Safe to say she\u2019s deciphered your handwriting by now?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Safe to say she\u2019s deciphered your handwriting by now?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"She has. There have actually been occasions where I couldn\u2019t decipher what I\u2019d written, at least<b> <\/b>a word or two, but she could translate it. She\u2019s like having a cuneiform expert help you out with Assyrian tablets. She is really very good at what she does and it has allowed me to move smoothly over a long period of time.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>She has. There have actually been occasions where I couldn\u2019t decipher what I\u2019d written, at least<b> <\/b>a word or two, but she could translate it. She\u2019s like having a cuneiform expert help you out with Assyrian tablets. She is really very good at what she does and it has allowed me to move smoothly over a long period of time.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>She has. There have actually been occasions where I couldn\u2019t decipher what I\u2019d written, at least<b> <\/b>a word or two, but she could translate it. She\u2019s like having a cuneiform expert help you out with Assyrian tablets. She is really very good at what she does and it has allowed me to move smoothly over a long period of time.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>She has. There have actually been occasions where I couldn\u2019t decipher what I\u2019d written, at least<b> <\/b>a word or two, but she could translate it. She\u2019s like having a cuneiform expert help you out with Assyrian tablets. She is really very good at what she does and it has allowed me to move smoothly over a long period of time.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>What is most exciting about your field right now?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>What is most exciting about your field right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>What is most exciting about your field right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What is most exciting about your field right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"We are on a little-known planet. We have knowledge of two million species, but for the vast majority we know only the name and a little bit of the anatomy. We don\u2019t know anything at all about their biology. There is conservatively at least eight million species in all, and it\u2019s probably much more than that because of the bacteria and archaea and microorganisms we\u2019re just beginning to explore. The number of species remaining to be discovered could easily go into the tens of millions.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>We are on a little-known planet. We have knowledge of two million species, but for the vast majority we know only the name and a little bit of the anatomy. We don\u2019t know anything at all about their biology. There is conservatively at least eight million species in all, and it\u2019s probably much more than that because of the bacteria and archaea and microorganisms we\u2019re just beginning to explore. The number of species remaining to be discovered could easily go into the tens of millions.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>We are on a little-known planet. We have knowledge of two million species, but for the vast majority we know only the name and a little bit of the anatomy. We don\u2019t know anything at all about their biology. There is conservatively at least eight million species in all, and it\u2019s probably much more than that because of the bacteria and archaea and microorganisms we\u2019re just beginning to explore. The number of species remaining to be discovered could easily go into the tens of millions.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>We are on a little-known planet. We have knowledge of two million species, but for the vast majority we know only the name and a little bit of the anatomy. We don\u2019t know anything at all about their biology. There is conservatively at least eight million species in all, and it\u2019s probably much more than that because of the bacteria and archaea and microorganisms we\u2019re just beginning to explore. The number of species remaining to be discovered could easily go into the tens of millions.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"We will in time see a surging interest in and support of the area of biodiversity studies. I believe Harvard should be the world\u2019s leading university in this field and in those branches of ecology and conservation biology that have biodiversity studies as a foundation. Harvard should be in a position to lead, because Harvard has the largest private collection of plants, animals, and fungi \u2014 three of the major groups \u2014 in the world. It has one of the finest libraries in the world. It has a great tradition, going back to Agassiz, of major studies and acquisitions of major collections. It\u2019s obvious that this is the place to build the discipline \u2026 so that Harvard could be one of the universities, one of the rare universities, in the front rank of both of the two big divisions of biology, structure and history.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>We will in time see a surging interest in and support of the area of biodiversity studies. I believe Harvard should be the world\u2019s leading university in this field and in those branches of ecology and conservation biology that have biodiversity studies as a foundation. Harvard should be in a position to lead, because Harvard has the largest private collection of plants, animals, and fungi \u2014 three of the major groups \u2014 in the world. It has one of the finest libraries in the world. It has a great tradition, going back to Agassiz, of major studies and acquisitions of major collections. It\u2019s obvious that this is the place to build the discipline \u2026 so that Harvard could be one of the universities, one of the rare universities, in the front rank of both of the two big divisions of biology, structure and history.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>We will in time see a surging interest in and support of the area of biodiversity studies. I believe Harvard should be the world\u2019s leading university in this field and in those branches of ecology and conservation biology that have biodiversity studies as a foundation. Harvard should be in a position to lead, because Harvard has the largest private collection of plants, animals, and fungi \u2014 three of the major groups \u2014 in the world. It has one of the finest libraries in the world. It has a great tradition, going back to Agassiz, of major studies and acquisitions of major collections. It\u2019s obvious that this is the place to build the discipline \u2026 so that Harvard could be one of the universities, one of the rare universities, in the front rank of both of the two big divisions of biology, structure and history.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>We will in time see a surging interest in and support of the area of biodiversity studies. I believe Harvard should be the world\u2019s leading university in this field and in those branches of ecology and conservation biology that have biodiversity studies as a foundation. Harvard should be in a position to lead, because Harvard has the largest private collection of plants, animals, and fungi \u2014 three of the major groups \u2014 in the world. It has one of the finest libraries in the world. It has a great tradition, going back to Agassiz, of major studies and acquisitions of major collections. It\u2019s obvious that this is the place to build the discipline \u2026 so that Harvard could be one of the universities, one of the rare universities, in the front rank of both of the two big divisions of biology, structure and history.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>How do you feel about the future of biodiversity on the planet? Are you optimistic or pessimistic?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>How do you feel about the future of biodiversity on the planet? Are you optimistic or pessimistic?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>How do you feel about the future of biodiversity on the planet? Are you optimistic or pessimistic?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>How do you feel about the future of biodiversity on the planet? Are you optimistic or pessimistic?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I use an expression John Kennedy used at least once about the future generally: cautiously optimistic. I\u2019m now advising on reconstruction of a national park in Mozambique, the Gorongosa National Park. I\u2019m working with a group on the Gulf Coast to create a new park at Mobile and the Delta, which will be the biologically richest in America. This is how I\u2019d like to see progress achieved, step by step. It\u2019s what I\u2019m going to be involved in, as much as I\u2019m able, in the years I have left. We have an opportunity. We still can put aside a large portion of the world in reserves of biodiversity. But that potential is shrinking steadily and we really need to do something now. This is where Harvard can play a major role. If it becomes policy in a sufficient number of nations, then there are plenty of reasons for optimism. But if we keep going the way we are now, we\u2019re going to lose a large part of biodiversity by the end of the century.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I use an expression John Kennedy used at least once about the future generally: cautiously optimistic. I\u2019m now advising on reconstruction of a national park in Mozambique, the Gorongosa National Park. I\u2019m working with a group on the Gulf Coast to create a new park at Mobile and the Delta, which will be the biologically richest in America. This is how I\u2019d like to see progress achieved, step by step. It\u2019s what I\u2019m going to be involved in, as much as I\u2019m able, in the years I have left. We have an opportunity. We still can put aside a large portion of the world in reserves of biodiversity. But that potential is shrinking steadily and we really need to do something now. This is where Harvard can play a major role. If it becomes policy in a sufficient number of nations, then there are plenty of reasons for optimism. But if we keep going the way we are now, we\u2019re going to lose a large part of biodiversity by the end of the century.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I use an expression John Kennedy used at least once about the future generally: cautiously optimistic. I\u2019m now advising on reconstruction of a national park in Mozambique, the Gorongosa National Park. I\u2019m working with a group on the Gulf Coast to create a new park at Mobile and the Delta, which will be the biologically richest in America. This is how I\u2019d like to see progress achieved, step by step. It\u2019s what I\u2019m going to be involved in, as much as I\u2019m able, in the years I have left. We have an opportunity. We still can put aside a large portion of the world in reserves of biodiversity. But that potential is shrinking steadily and we really need to do something now. This is where Harvard can play a major role. If it becomes policy in a sufficient number of nations, then there are plenty of reasons for optimism. But if we keep going the way we are now, we\u2019re going to lose a large part of biodiversity by the end of the century.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I use an expression John Kennedy used at least once about the future generally: cautiously optimistic. I\u2019m now advising on reconstruction of a national park in Mozambique, the Gorongosa National Park. I\u2019m working with a group on the Gulf Coast to create a new park at Mobile and the Delta, which will be the biologically richest in America. This is how I\u2019d like to see progress achieved, step by step. It\u2019s what I\u2019m going to be involved in, as much as I\u2019m able, in the years I have left. We have an opportunity. We still can put aside a large portion of the world in reserves of biodiversity. But that potential is shrinking steadily and we really need to do something now. This is where Harvard can play a major role. If it becomes policy in a sufficient number of nations, then there are plenty of reasons for optimism. But if we keep going the way we are now, we\u2019re going to lose a large part of biodiversity by the end of the century.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>What lessons can a young student starting out today, looking at your career and thinking, \u201cI want to make an impact like that\u201d \u2014 what lessons can he or she extract from your life?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>What lessons can a young student starting out today, looking at your career and thinking, \u201cI want to make an impact like that\u201d \u2014 what lessons can he or she extract from your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>What lessons can a young student starting out today, looking at your career and thinking, \u201cI want to make an impact like that\u201d \u2014 what lessons can he or she extract from your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What lessons can a young student starting out today, looking at your career and thinking, \u201cI want to make an impact like that\u201d \u2014 what lessons can he or she extract from your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"It almost sounds trite, you hear it so often, but you don\u2019t see enough of it in college-age students, and that is to acquire a passion. You probably already have one, but if you haven\u2019t got one, search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression. With reference to biology and science, do the opposite of the military dictum and march away from the sound of guns. Don\u2019t get too enamored by what\u2019s happening right at this moment and science heroes doing great things currently. Learn from them, but think further down the line: Move to an area where you can be a pioneer. That kind of opportunity is everywhere in science and especially in biology, including biodiversity studies and ecology.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>It almost sounds trite, you hear it so often, but you don\u2019t see enough of it in college-age students, and that is to acquire a passion. You probably already have one, but if you haven\u2019t got one, search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression. With reference to biology and science, do the opposite of the military dictum and march away from the sound of guns. Don\u2019t get too enamored by what\u2019s happening right at this moment and science heroes doing great things currently. Learn from them, but think further down the line: Move to an area where you can be a pioneer. That kind of opportunity is everywhere in science and especially in biology, including biodiversity studies and ecology.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>It almost sounds trite, you hear it so often, but you don\u2019t see enough of it in college-age students, and that is to acquire a passion. You probably already have one, but if you haven\u2019t got one, search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression. With reference to biology and science, do the opposite of the military dictum and march away from the sound of guns. Don\u2019t get too enamored by what\u2019s happening right at this moment and science heroes doing great things currently. Learn from them, but think further down the line: Move to an area where you can be a pioneer. That kind of opportunity is everywhere in science and especially in biology, including biodiversity studies and ecology.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>It almost sounds trite, you hear it so often, but you don\u2019t see enough of it in college-age students, and that is to acquire a passion. You probably already have one, but if you haven\u2019t got one, search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression. With reference to biology and science, do the opposite of the military dictum and march away from the sound of guns. Don\u2019t get too enamored by what\u2019s happening right at this moment and science heroes doing great things currently. Learn from them, but think further down the line: Move to an area where you can be a pioneer. That kind of opportunity is everywhere in science and especially in biology, including biodiversity studies and ecology.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<strong>Did you ever think of leaving Harvard? You\u2019ve been here many years and had lots of victories. What kept you here all the time?<\/strong>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong>Did you ever think of leaving Harvard? You\u2019ve been here many years and had lots of victories. What kept you here all the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong>Did you ever think of leaving Harvard? You\u2019ve been here many years and had lots of victories. What kept you here all the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Did you ever think of leaving Harvard? You\u2019ve been here many years and had lots of victories. What kept you here all the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I like being at the world\u2019s greatest university with the world\u2019s best insect and ant collections. Believe it or not, however, during the height of the anti-sociobiology furor, I started looking around at other universities where I could work in peace.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I like being at the world\u2019s greatest university with the world\u2019s best insect and ant collections. Believe it or not, however, during the height of the anti-sociobiology furor, I started looking around at other universities where I could work in peace.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I like being at the world\u2019s greatest university with the world\u2019s best insect and ant collections. Believe it or not, however, during the height of the anti-sociobiology furor, I started looking around at other universities where I could work in peace.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I like being at the world\u2019s greatest university with the world\u2019s best insect and ant collections. Believe it or not, however, during the height of the anti-sociobiology furor, I started looking around at other universities where I could work in peace.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"I have to confess, here for the first time, I had a fantasy of going to Texas A&M, where I could sit peacefully in my lab working, with good graduate students, while watching cadets marching by outside [laughs].","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>I have to confess, here for the first time, I had a fantasy of going to Texas A&M, where I could sit peacefully in my lab working, with good graduate students, while watching cadets marching by outside [laughs].<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>I have to confess, here for the first time, I had a fantasy of going to Texas A&M, where I could sit peacefully in my lab working, with good graduate students, while watching cadets marching by outside [laughs].<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>I have to confess, here for the first time, I had a fantasy of going to Texas A&M, where I could sit peacefully in my lab working, with good graduate students, while watching cadets marching by outside [laughs].<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"But I never really came close to leaving Harvard. It\u2019s just too great a place.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p>But I never really came close to leaving Harvard. It\u2019s just too great a place.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p>But I never really came close to leaving Harvard. It\u2019s just too great a place.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p>But I never really came close to leaving Harvard. It\u2019s just too great a place.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"align":"","content":"<em>Interview was edited for clarity and length.<\/em>","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><em>Interview was edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><em>Interview was edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><em>Interview was edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","\n\n","<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><em><strong>Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Edward O. Wilson, pioneering biologist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and Harvard professor for more than four decades, died December 26 at age 92. In a 2014 interview with the Gazette, he looked back on his life and work. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Edward O. Wilson, the Pellegrino University Professor <i>Emeritus<\/i>, was born in Alabama in June 1929. A boyhood immersed in nature and the world of insects provided an education he would build on through high school and at the University of Alabama, and then during graduate studies at Harvard, where he\u2019s been since receiving his Ph.D. in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wilson is probably best known for his groundbreaking insights on ants, but his research has extended deep into other realms of science, sometimes with provocative results. His theory of island biogeography, written with Robert MacArthur, examined how species rise and fall on isolated islands, both those surrounded by water and, more importantly for conservation today, habitat islands surrounded by different landscapes. His book on the biological roots of behavior, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d touched off an academic row in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wilson\u2019s honors include two Pulitzer Prizes \u2014 for  \u201cOn Human Nature\u201d and, with Bert H\u00f6lldobler, \u201cThe Ants\u201d \u2014 the National Medal of Science, in 1976, and the 1990 Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He retired from full-time scholarship and teaching in 1996, but has carried on with research and writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What guided you into the field of ant biology, and were there other options at the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There weren\u2019t many options growing up in Alabama and I wasn\u2019t even thinking that I would eventually have to choose a career. But I had chosen one just the same. I had become so passionate about nature and insects that I decided by my teens that I would become an entomologist. I thought probably what I\u2019d do is join the Department of Agriculture and become an extension entomologist and advise farmers. Basically, I was willing to do anything to allow me to devote myself to entomology. I also got a lot from the Boy Scouts. That\u2019s where I got my main education in an otherwise poor public school system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I arrived at the University of Alabama, I had just passed my 17th birthday. I found that the doors were open and the faculty there was very welcoming and supportive. They didn\u2019t get many people, back there in the \u201940s, who were interested in becoming an academic. Most of the biology concentrators were pre-med. I graduated shortly after my 20th birthday, then went on to get a master\u2019s degree, and then to the University of Tennessee \u2014 that was getting pretty far north for me \u2014 to join their doctoral program. I had a wonderful professor of botany named Jack Sharp. He was known nationally for his research on plants. In late 1950 or early 1951, he wrote from Knoxville to his friend Frank Carpenter, who was chairman of the Biology Department and professor of entomology, and said, \u201cThis kid does not belong here, he belongs at Harvard.\u201d He did me a tremendous service with that letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019d already visited Harvard in the summer of 1950, mainly to see the ant collection and visit a graduate student working on ants with whom I\u2019d corresponded. I had made some added connection there and met one of the professors in the Biology Department. The result was that Harvard wrote me, saying that if I cared to apply, it\u2019s very likely I would get a teaching fellowship and be admitted. And I did just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the spring of \u201953 I was overjoyed to receive a junior fellowship [of the Society of Fellows], and the ability to go anywhere in the world I wanted, with all expenses paid, to do anything I wished. The only oath asked of the new junior fellows at the dinner at Eliot House was that they do something extraordinary. What an incredible charge to give an ambitious young man or woman: \u201cWe don\u2019t care what you do, what field you go into as long as you accomplish something \u2014 as a junior fellow \u2014 extraordinary.\u201d I decided I would do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What was it about entomology that attracted you? Was it the ability to explore the outdoors or something about the insects themselves that drew you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have only one functional eye, my left eye, but it\u2019s very sharp. And I somehow focused on little things. I noticed butterflies and ants more than other kids did, and took an interest in them automatically. Even at the age of 9 in school in Washington, D.C., I was reading about insects<b> <\/b>through all the National Geographics. And there was one article in 1934 entitled, \u201cStalking Ants: Savage and Civilized.\u201d It happened to be by the man [William M. Mann] who later became the director of the National Zoo, and he got his Ph.D. here at Harvard. It<b> <\/b>just knocked me flat when I read about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though most of the species he depicted were found only in other countries, especially in the tropics, I was soon out watching ants, trying to find the ants he mentioned in the book and going to the national museum. I was<b> <\/b>also developing a passion for butterflies. I had a net, which my stepmother made for me from a coat hanger, cheesecloth, and a broom handle. So I was off and running by the age of 10. I was trying to read books on entomology. They were over my head, of course, but I had the ambition to learn what I could when I could. And all through my teen years, as I was advancing up to Eagle Scout in Alabama, I was focusing on natural history, including ants and butterflies and snakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Did you ever give your selection of ants a second thought? Did you ever, in a discouraging time, ask, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I do something easy?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ants are easy. I had been collecting them all over the state of Alabama and elsewhere and identifying [them]. I had already, in high school, made friends with the very small number of ant experts in the United States, exchanging specimens and getting advice and so on. It seemed terribly easy to me from the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I wanted to do when I got to Harvard was get a much broader background. This was helped substantially by contacts in the Biology Department and also the Society of Fellows. I had the pleasure of having conversations with other junior fellows, who included people like Marvin Minsky and Noam Chomsky, and got to meet people like T.S. Eliot and Robert Oppenheimer. It was just amazing. You could talk with these exceptional people and grow in breadth and confidence. But the dream that kept returning was to go to the tropics and study the ants of the rainforest. I left almost as soon as I became a junior fellow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1953, I was off to Cuba and Mexico, a paradise for me of tropical forests inhabited by hundreds of kinds of ants. And then I came back and finished my Ph.D. I soon informed the chairman of the fellows, the historian Crane Brinton, that I was on my way to New Guinea, to all the other archipelagos of Melanesia, and I would try to cost the Society of Fellows as little as possible. And off I went. It was there that I collected ants and studied rainforests and thought about ecology and took long, sometimes solitary trips through the forests. I began to develop ideas about how ants had gotten into these distant places and how they\u2019d evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In later years I realized that what I was doing is what Germans call <i>wanderjahr<\/i>, the<b> <\/b>year of wandering. It is a German expression for young men who were expected to leave the village. They\u2019d mature and go off to another village to learn a trade. And this is what people like Darwin, Philip Darlington, here the curator of entomology, and Ernst Mayr had done. As young men, they were in the tropics soaking up all the raw information and experience of what the natural world is really like, and forming ideas about it. I came back in 1955, married, and was bursting with ideas about what I could do in science, using ants as my principal group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>And did that trip lead specifically to any of your noted theories? Did the theory of island biogeography come from there?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That came straight from there. When I met Robert MacArthur in the late \u201950s, we were both young professors, deeply worried about the status of our field, which was ecology and evolution. It was a golden age of biology, but of molecular and cell biology. It looked as though ecology, systematics, and biogeography would just be relegated to third-line status as far as universities like Harvard were concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MacArthur and I hit it off very quickly. He had mathematical modeling ability and I was already publishing substantial papers on Asian and Pacific ants. We put our heads together and \u2026 developed the theory of island biogeography. It was immediately successful, because it hooked up ecology to conservation biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The world consists of islands, the reserves and the parks and the remnant patches of forest on the mountainside are islands. We saw the [theory as a] way to deal with the fate of species that were essentially confined to what we call habitat islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u2018I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>As forests have become more fragmented and habitats have become smaller, has the theory become more relevant?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, vastly more relevant. It\u2019s one of the foundation pieces of conservation biology: how to understand why there are a certain number of species in a forest, maybe a forest on an island or maybe a fragment of forest on the continental coast. How to analyze it, find out what\u2019s happening, to look into particulars like how often species reach the island, how fast they\u2019re likely to be going extinct, how fast they might be evolving to create new species. All those factors are seen as basic in evaluating the status and the value of a particular reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Clearly you\u2019ve made several seminal contributions to science \u2014 is there one that you feel proudest about or view as your crowning achievement?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By 50 years from now they\u2019ll say, \u201cLook, here\u2019s the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where that fellow \u2026 what was his name?\u201d [Laughs] I\u2019ve had several \u201caha!\u201d moments. Certainly one was the theory of island biogeography that came together in conversations with MacArthur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second one hasn\u2019t been noted very much but it was one of the reasons I got the National Medal of Science at a very young age, in 1976. That\u2019s the development of pheromone biology and studies of social insects, and also the very first theory of pheromone molecular evolution and dynamics. I published the theory<b> <\/b>in 1962. That was done with another colleague right here at Harvard, Bill Bossert. Bossert and I produced the first basic conception on what would be the optimal nature and size of pheromone molecules and how one could predict the rate and extent that they spread and how all this could be adaptive for the species. Oddly, pheromone research hasn\u2019t advanced very much. I have a feeling the reason for that \u2014 the theory I worked out with Bossert was not given much attention \u2014 is that about the only place people produce pheromones is in their armpit and that is not very interesting. [Laughs]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third happy \u2014 aha! \u2014 moment. The one time I couldn\u2019t sleep at night was after making the first fire ant pheromone discovery. I did it here in the lab with fire ants. I decided to use a trail pheromone. When I hit the tiny gland that produces it in the rear part of the ant, I got a completely surprising response. The ants followed it, but it activated them in a variety of other ways. It excited them. It caused them to start communicating with other ants that followed. The fire ant trail substance was the first glandular pheromone source discovered in insects, or at least in social insects. Subsequent research showed that it was a blend of pheromones. So what I was looking at was a variety of messages sent simultaneously among the ants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One aha! moment, sort of a lowercase aha!, was the discovery and description of the first ant of Mesozoic age, in other words, ancestral to modern ants. I knew that ants must have originated in the age of reptiles, back in the Mesozoic, but the earliest specimens we had were from the age of mammals, back 60 million years. So all of us were waiting for the discovery of a Mesozoic ant, when two of them were found in one piece of amber. I\u2019d like to tell you it was found on an upper branch of the Amazon River, but it wasn\u2019t; it was on the New Jersey shore [laughs] \u2014 in a 90-million-year-old deposit of amber and woody materials. Out of that came a perfect specimen in a perfect piece of amber, clear as glass with two ants in it. That was a thrilling moment to put it under a microscope and say, \u201cOK, guys, we\u2019ve already<b> <\/b>made it to 60 million and now we\u2019re going to go all the way back to 90 million.\u201d And the darn things fitted exactly how we predicted if ants evolved from wasps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was the late \u201960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And finally, a drawn-out aha!, the one that really caused quite an uproar here at Harvard, was when I was building the field of sociobiology, first with the book called \u201cThe Insect Societies,\u201d in 1971, and then \u201cSociobiology: The New Synthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sociobiology was far more than what many of its critics wanted to call it: just the belief that human beings have genetic-based instincts. Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior in all kinds of animals, and that\u2019s how I developed it in those two books. It was very simple. I did say that maybe the same principles that we\u2019re learning from comparative studies of social behavior and the evolution of social behavior in animals might apply to human beings. But if it applied to human beings, the only way it can be applied meaningfully is that human beings have instincts. We have drives that are inborn, that people inherit, and there may be variation among people. I stepped into a minefield by finishing this big book, \u201cSociobiology,\u201d with a chapter saying how it could be applied to people. I tried to be cautious. I should have been more politically careful, by saying this does not imply racism, it does not imply sexism, I\u2019m not trying to defend capitalism, so don\u2019t drop the world on top of me. If I\u2019d added that in the book, then I might have gotten off a little easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the \u201960s and \u201970s it became almost dogma \u2014 it <i>was<\/i> a dogma \u2014 to believe that the human brain was a tabula rasa, a blank slate. I don\u2019t think scholars in this generation, even those of middle age, can appreciate how stern was the prohibition against believing that human behavior was influenced by genes in any manner whatsoever. The only acceptable view was that the brain was a blank slate and what humanity does and humanity feels and what societies end up becoming is strictly a matter of choice and is determined by our history, particularly<b> <\/b>by the culture we\u2019re born with. We can design a much more perfect society if we use our reason and train the brain accordingly. That was the belief in the social sciences. It was also the belief of the \u2014 how shall I put it \u2014 the far left among some scientists, including two of my more notable colleagues here at Harvard, Richard Lewontin and Stephen J. Gould. They were really incensed that a colleague of theirs would deviate so far from what was the needed ideology, the political ideology, to make social progress. And they were marvelously sophisticated Marxists, with well-reasoned ideas of how to blend socialism and biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Harvard faculty and the students \u2014 partly as a result of the convulsions of the \u201960s \u2014 were far left and very few would openly defy them. Being from Alabama, I was expected, I think, to be a conservative.  And I can tell you now, thinking back, I was really neither. I was at neither end of the spectrum. I was an innocent sociobiologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I thought that this was a great idea. I saw all sorts of possibilities for building a sociobiology that could then be picked up by social scientists. And I really was so naive as to think my colleagues in the social sciences would be grateful to me [laughs] for having provided them with a whole different armamentarium for their theories on<b> <\/b>the origins of human behavior. What I got was mostly buckshot [laughs]. That has changed now, but that was the aha! moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Were you surprised at the response? Did you have no idea it would be controversial?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had no idea. I really wish I could say I knew it was coming, but it really blindsided me. And it took me a while to figure out how to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Did you have an emotional reaction? Did you feel hurt or was it more intellectual?<i><br><\/i><\/strong><i> <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was more intellectual. The first time I saw one of these counterattacks appear in The New York Review of Books, I<b> <\/b>saw I was going to win this one. With the reasoning and evidence, I felt confident. It was science versus political ideology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I really was upset at being called a racist, promoting racism and sexism. I was accused of trying to reintroduce a retrograde, outmoded, dangerous philosophy. There was nothing in \u201cSociobiology\u201d to suggest such a thing. The words had to be taken out of context and tweaked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On one occasion, I had a little mob in Harvard Square parading and protesting and holding placards demanding that Harvard dismiss me. On another occasion, when I was to give a lecture at the Science Center, a crowd of protesters gathered at the entrance with signs and shouts and chants and so on. I was ushered in through the rear by University police. My class was disrupted at least once. Not seriously, but yeah, that\u2019s annoying. Looking back at that now, it was a very strange period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This created a sensation, but at least students were exposed to new<b> <\/b>ideas. I say to myself to this day, \u201cIs this not what a university is for?\u201d This is what a university is supposed to be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/wilson-570.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-154922\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Wilson, in his office at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, writes or does research daily.\t\t\t<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Harvard University<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How about mistakes along the way? Are there things that you regret or things you might have done differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was one of them. When I was writing \u201cSociobiology,\u201d if I had to do it over again, I would have written a solid piece in that infamous final chapter and said that it really tells us nothing about the best political system or correct ideology. This is just knowledge, through which we can acquire a view of the human condition. We can acquire what we did not have before and this has to be useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is the strongest argument today that your thoughts on sociobiology were right? I hear a lot of things related to the obesity epidemic, people trying to explain why we behave the way we do.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That book came out in \u201975, and in the early \u201980s, the field of evolutionary psychology spun off. My colleagues working in the social sciences and psychology who created evolutionary psychology avoided the word \u201csociobiology\u201d \u2014 some of them told me this. They wanted to use another word that wouldn\u2019t be tarnished from the beginning. To this day \u201csociobiology\u201d is only sparingly used as an expression because people are still a little afraid of it. In 1978, in the midst of all the tumult \u2014 people smile when I say \u201ctumult\u201d in talking about academics hitting one another with beanbags; it really wasn\u2019t quite the same as a civil war \u2014 I said to myself, \u201cI have to write a book that will do what I should have done in \u2018Sociobiology.\u2019\u201d That is, explain how I view human behavior and what the applications of sociobiology could be and what the possibilities of it are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that it\u2019s fair to say the work I produced was the founding book of evolutionary psychology, although it wasn\u2019t until the next decade that the term evolutionary psychology began to be used. But the book, \u201cOn Human Nature,\u201d in 1978 won a Pulitzer Prize and, as we say in a Southeastern Conference football game when our team scores on the opponent\u2019s field, \u201cThat has a way of quieting the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What do you think of an entomologist winning two Pulitzer Prizes? Is that something you could have envisioned when you were a young boy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think it\u2019s bizarre [laughs]. It was luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second Pulitzer was a big, comprehensive book Bert H\u00f6lldobler and I put together. Bert and I worked together for a dozen years in the laboratory section of the MCZ [Museum of Comparative Zoology] and our collaboration was very fruitful. We had different talents and different approaches. Bert brought in rigorous methods of investigation by stepwise experimentation. I brought into the mix the scientific natural history. I knew the ants; I knew what was interesting to look at. We published a lot. And then Bert couldn\u2019t get enough of the support he needed and the University of W\u00fcrzburg offered him a million dollar prize to create anything he wanted to create. And so off Bert went. But before he left, we said, \u201cLook, between the two of us, we know everything there is to know about ants.\u201d Nobody could say that today because the field, myrmecology, has grown exponentially, but you could say it then. And we said, \u201cLet\u2019s write a book that has everything known about ants.\u201d And to my astonishment, it was given the Pulitzer. It was also the only book of science-meant-for-scientists to win the prize. We didn\u2019t write this for the literary world \u2014 we wrote it for scientists. But we did our best job of writing and illustrating and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is your philosophy of writing? Do you have writing habits? Do you write every day?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Do you love it or is it a chore sometimes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I love it. You know, like a shark, unless you swim you sink? I have that feeling. I remember one of the great pianists once said about practicing, \u201cI miss a week of practice and the audience notices. I miss a day, and I notice.\u201d It\u2019s just what I love to do. I love the research, I love the study, I love the quiet thought, and I like writing. I just write or conduct research every day. Always there\u2019s something new to write about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Do you do it here or do you have a study at home?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mostly, I do it at home now. And I write longhand on yellow, lined legal paper and Kathy Horton is the reason I can do that. She\u2019s been working with me 47 years and she knows everything, knows everybody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Safe to say she\u2019s deciphered your handwriting by now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She has. There have actually been occasions where I couldn\u2019t decipher what I\u2019d written, at least<b> <\/b>a word or two, but she could translate it. She\u2019s like having a cuneiform expert help you out with Assyrian tablets. She is really very good at what she does and it has allowed me to move smoothly over a long period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is most exciting about your field right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I haven\u2019t changed since I was a 17-year-old entering the University of Alabama. I\u2019m still basically a boy who\u2019s excited by what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are on a little-known planet. We have knowledge of two million species, but for the vast majority we know only the name and a little bit of the anatomy. We don\u2019t know anything at all about their biology. There is conservatively at least eight million species in all, and it\u2019s probably much more than that because of the bacteria and archaea and microorganisms we\u2019re just beginning to explore. The number of species remaining to be discovered could easily go into the tens of millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We will in time see a surging interest in and support of the area of biodiversity studies. I believe Harvard should be the world\u2019s leading university in this field and in those branches of ecology and conservation biology that have biodiversity studies as a foundation. Harvard should be in a position to lead, because Harvard has the largest private collection of plants, animals, and fungi \u2014 three of the major groups \u2014 in the world. It has one of the finest libraries in the world. It has a great tradition, going back to Agassiz, of major studies and acquisitions of major collections. It\u2019s obvious that this is the place to build the discipline \u2026 so that Harvard could be one of the universities, one of the rare universities, in the front rank of both of the two big divisions of biology, structure and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How do you feel about the future of biodiversity on the planet? Are you optimistic or pessimistic?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I use an expression John Kennedy used at least once about the future generally: cautiously optimistic. I\u2019m now advising on reconstruction of a national park in Mozambique, the Gorongosa National Park. I\u2019m working with a group on the Gulf Coast to create a new park at Mobile and the Delta, which will be the biologically richest in America. This is how I\u2019d like to see progress achieved, step by step. It\u2019s what I\u2019m going to be involved in, as much as I\u2019m able, in the years I have left. We have an opportunity. We still can put aside a large portion of the world in reserves of biodiversity. But that potential is shrinking steadily and we really need to do something now. This is where Harvard can play a major role. If it becomes policy in a sufficient number of nations, then there are plenty of reasons for optimism. But if we keep going the way we are now, we\u2019re going to lose a large part of biodiversity by the end of the century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What lessons can a young student starting out today, looking at your career and thinking, \u201cI want to make an impact like that\u201d \u2014 what lessons can he or she extract from your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It almost sounds trite, you hear it so often, but you don\u2019t see enough of it in college-age students, and that is to acquire a passion. You probably already have one, but if you haven\u2019t got one, search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression. With reference to biology and science, do the opposite of the military dictum and march away from the sound of guns. Don\u2019t get too enamored by what\u2019s happening right at this moment and science heroes doing great things currently. Learn from them, but think further down the line: Move to an area where you can be a pioneer. That kind of opportunity is everywhere in science and especially in biology, including biodiversity studies and ecology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Did you ever think of leaving Harvard? You\u2019ve been here many years and had lots of victories. What kept you here all the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I like being at the world\u2019s greatest university with the world\u2019s best insect and ant collections. Believe it or not, however, during the height of the anti-sociobiology furor, I started looking around at other universities where I could work in peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have to confess, here for the first time, I had a fantasy of going to Texas A&M, where I could sit peacefully in my lab working, with good graduate students, while watching cadets marching by outside [laughs].<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I never really came close to leaving Harvard. It\u2019s just too great a place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Interview was edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":114920,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2012\/07\/e-o-wilson-wins-cosmos-prize\/","url_meta":{"origin":153534,"position":0},"title":"E.O. Wilson wins Cosmos Prize","author":"harvardgazette","date":"July 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"E.O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus, has been awarded the 20th annual International Cosmos Prize by Japan\u2019s Expo \u201990 Foundation. The prize, worth 40 million Japanese yen ($511,444), will be presented to Wilson on Oct. 29 in Osaka, Japan.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/040510_wilson_e_o_064.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/040510_wilson_e_o_064.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/040510_wilson_e_o_064.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":107641,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2012\/04\/the-science-of-selflessness\/","url_meta":{"origin":153534,"position":1},"title":"Survival of the selfless","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In a talk sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, biologist E.O. Wilson said that competition among groups of humans is a likely explanation for the rise of altruistic behavior in individuals.","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/041212_wilson_026_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/041212_wilson_026_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/041212_wilson_026_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":336816,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2022\/01\/a-trailblazing-biologist-and-beloved-mentor-and-friend\/","url_meta":{"origin":153534,"position":2},"title":"A trailblazing biologist \u2014 and beloved mentor and friend","author":"harvardgazette","date":"January 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Friends and colleagues remember E.O. Wilson as shy but down to earth, passionate about his work but generous with his time.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"E.O. Wilson 1994.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Hi_j0097_99_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Hi_j0097_99_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Hi_j0097_99_1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Hi_j0097_99_1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":151716,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/01\/wilson-receives-benjamin-franklin-founder-award\/","url_meta":{"origin":153534,"position":3},"title":"Wilson receives Benjamin Franklin Founder Award","author":"harvardgazette","date":"January 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson received the Franklin Founders Award on Jan. 17, delivering a speech on Franklin\u2019s 308th birthday.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/eowilsonaward605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/eowilsonaward605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/eowilsonaward605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":129414,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/02\/james-q-wilson\/","url_meta":{"origin":153534,"position":4},"title":"James Q. Wilson","author":"harvardgazette","date":"February 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"James Quinn Wilson, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government, taught at Harvard from 1961 to 1987. Perhaps the most prominent political scientist of his generation, he died in Boston, Massachusetts, from complications of leukemia, on March 2, 2012.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/092707_monyihan_103_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/092707_monyihan_103_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/092707_monyihan_103_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":133680,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2013\/03\/astronaut-named-chief-marshal\/","url_meta":{"origin":153534,"position":5},"title":"Astronaut named chief marshal","author":"harvardgazette","date":"March 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Harvard Alumni Association announced that Stephanie D. Wilson \u201988, a NASA astronaut and engineer who flew three missions aboard the space shuttle Discovery, will serve as Harvard\u2019s chief marshal for Commencement 2013.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/stephanie-wilson-headshot_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/stephanie-wilson-headshot_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/stephanie-wilson-headshot_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153534"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379452,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153534\/revisions\/379452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153534"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=153534"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=153534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}