Ants
"E.O. Wilson is the ant man. Over six decades at Harvard University he has discovered more about ants than anyone else in history. He has thrown into relief for the general public just how important ants are—how they represent 25% or more of the insect biomass on the planet, how collectively they weigh more than all the humans in the world, how they assist humans by aerating the soil, suturing wounds, or, as in South Africa, harvesting the rooibos seeds for farm workers to collect. And how ancient they are: in 1966 Wilson and his colleagues identified an ant in a shard of amber that was 80m years old. Ants emerged along with flowering plants 130m years ago. By contrast, the genus Homo diverged 2m years ago, has existed as Homo sapiens for a fraction of that time, with a civilisation of 20,000 years or so."
Read more about E.O. Wilson and ants at The Economist.
What a great line:
". . .and there is a calming effect of knowledge, thought and routine."
More:
"A defining factor of ants is the speed at which they communicate through chemical cues. These pheromonal messages are simple—'Look, this is my caste, this my condition,' or, 'Raise more soldiers'—but in the context of the super-organism they create a common intelligence capable of dealing with complicated problems. There are specialist jobs: many ant colonies have cemeteries. The cemetery workers live at the edge of the city, where their sole responsibility is to arrange the dead, and parts of limbs, and rubbish, and to bury it. They dispose of the dead both as a service and to protect the nest from pathogens."
He is a fascinating man. A great and thoughtful soul, I believe. I recommend going on C-SPAN's site archives to watch him in one of those 3 hour Sunday afternoon one-on-ones from a year or two back. Pioneer also of controversial field of SOCIOBIOLOGY.
E.O. Wilson defines sociobiology as: “The extension of population biology and evolutionary theory to social organisation.” [Wilson, E.O. (1978) On Human Nature.]
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You ask and we answer. Watch away:
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