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Birth of Edward Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson was born in Birmingham, Alabama. -
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Edward O. Wilson
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Wilson's accident!
When Wilson was seven years old, he was blinded in one eye in a fishing accident. He was struck in the eye with the dorsel fin of a spiny fish. -
Start of Science
When Wilson was 18, he became an entomologist. He collected flies, but with the decrease in insect pins because of World War II, he moved on to ants. -
A Big Part
In the late 1950s and 1960s, Wilson played a big part in the development of the new field of chemical ecology. With several other scientists, he worked out much of the pheromone language of ants. -
Global Conservation
By the late 1970s, Wilson was involved in global conservation, adding to both original research and the promotion of biodiversity research. In 1984 he published Biophilia, which was about the evolutionary and psychological basis of peoples attraction to the natural environment. -
The Insect Societies
In 1971 Wilson published his second major book, The Insect Societies, which combined the already known knowledge of the behavior of ants, social bees, social wasps, and termites, on a base of population biology. In it he introduced the concept of a new curriculum of sociobiology, the study of the biological basis of social behavior in all kinds of organisms. -
Sociobiology
In 1975 he published Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, which extended the subject to vertebrates and combined it more closely to evolutionary biology. This book was ranked in a poll of the international Animal Behaviour Society as the most important book on animal behavior of all time. It also included a brief analysis of the basis of human nature. -
On Human Nature
Wilson published On Human Nature in 1978. With Charles Lumsden, he developed the first general theory of gene-culture co-evolution. -
The Unity of Knowledge
In 1998 Wilson extended his program of evolutionary thought in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, which argues for a reversal of the current piece of knowledge and a return to the ideals of the original Enlightenment, including joining of the sciences and humanities. -
Wilson's Awards
Edward O. Wilson has recieved more than 100 awards for his contributions to the advancements in genetic science.
