Biomedical subjects
E O Wilson
Publications and source records attributed to E O Wilson.
How to unify knowledge. Keynote address.
The central question of general scholarship is whether all of knowledge is intrinsically consilient, that is, whether it can be united by a continuous skein of cause-and-effect explanation and across levels of increasingly complex organization. The answer lies in the recognition that the traditional line separating the great branches of learning (natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities) is not a barrier or even a line, but rather a broad domain of poorly explored material phenomena now being cooperatively entered from all sides. The key to bridge-building is the discovery and analysis of human nature, which consists of the epigenetic rules--the hereditary regularities in mental development. Their study is now well under way, at the biological, social science, and humanities levels. Examples of epigenetic rules include the origin of color vocabularies, incest avoidance, optimum arousal in artistic design, and response to the natural environment. The convergence of the great branches of learning is mostly an empirical process, light on formal logic and theory in its initial stages. The value of the consilience program is that at long last we appear to have acquired the means either to establish the intrinsic truth of the fundamental unity of knowledge, or to discard it. I will argue the likelihood of its existence and early establishment.
Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. Integrating science and conservation.
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William Hamilton (1936-2000).
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Consilience among the great branches of learning.
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Is humanity suicidal?
The world's fauna and flora has entered a crisis unparalleled since the end of the Mesozoic Era, with the extinction rate of species now elevated to more than a thousand times that existing before the coming of humanity. Scientists and policy makers are ill-prepared to moderate this hemorrhaging, because so little is known of the biology of the Earth's millions of species and because so little effort has been directed toward conservation thus far. With the vanished species will go great potential wealth in scientific knowledge, new products, ecosystems services, and part of the natural world in which the human species originated. The need for new research and improved management is thus urgent. If it is not met, humanity will likely survive, but in a world biologically impoverished for all time.
Sociobiology, individuality, and ethics: a response.
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Gene-culture translation in the avoidance of sibling incest.
A preliminary analysis is made of the relation between the epigenetic rules of brother-sister incest avoidance, which operate during individual development, and the frequency of occurrence of this form of incest among cultures.
Sex differences in cooperative silk-spinning by weaver ant larvae.
Final-instar larvae of weaver ants (Oecophylla longinoda) use their silk for nest construction rather than for cocoon spinning; this commitment represents a shift from entirely selfish to entirely cooperative behavior that occurred after the emergence of the phylogenetically advanced subfamily Formicinae. Male larvae were found to have smaller silk glands and to contribute substantially less silk to nest construction. The hypothesis of kin selection appears to be the most plausible and parsimonious explanation of this sex difference, but other, individual-level modes of selection have not been eliminated.
Translation of epigenetic rules of individual behavior into ethnographic patterns.
The pivotal process in gene-culture coevolution is envisaged to be the evolution of behavioral epigenesis. From premises based on the known properties of enculturation and usage diffusion within societies, a probabilistic model is constructed to estimate the degree to which rules governing individual development canalize ethnographic curves (the probability density distributions of societies engaged in varying patterns of usage). The results indicate that under most conceivable conditions the translation from individual epigenesis to social pattern is amplified, to an extent that differences in bias too faint to be detected in ordinary developmental studies can generate conspicuous variation in the ethnographic curves. Examples are cited of sufficiently biased epigenesis in human behavior.
The ethical implications of human sociobiology.
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Caste and ecology in the social insects.
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Weaver ants: social establishment and maintenance of territory.
Workers of the African weaver ant Oecophylla longinoda recruit nestmates to previously unoccupied space by means of odor trails laid from the rectal gland, a hitherto unrecognized musculated organ located at the rear of the rectal sac. When enemy ants and other intruders are encountered on the territory, the Oecophylla assemble nestmates into small resting clusters by dispensing an attractant-arrestant pheromone from the sternal gland, a second newly discovered organ located on the last abdominal sternite. Under prolonged stress, additional forces are recruited to the combat area with the aid of the rectal-gland trail substance.
Colony-specific territorial pheromone in the African weaver ant Oecophylla longinoda (Latreille).
Major workers of Oecophylla longinoda mark their territories with persistent pheromones that are distinguishable to the ants at the colony level. Workers detecting the deposits of an alien colony respond with increased amounts of aversive and aggressive behavior, and they later recruit nestmates to the area at a higher rate. Colonies entering a field impregnated with their own scent also gain an initial advantage in warfare with other colonies. The pheromones are located at least in part in drops of rectal sac fluid deposited by workers over the territorial surface.
Biology and the social sciences.
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Enemy specification in the alarm-recruitment system of an ant.
Many kinds of ants use odor trails to recruit nestmates to food discoveries and new sites; minor workers of the myrmicine Pheidole dentata also use them to recruit major workers ("soldiers") to the vicinity of intruders. This newly discovered alarm-recruitment system has proved to be narrowly specific. Only fire ants and other members of the genus Solenopsis, which include some of the potentially most dangerous enemies of Pheidole, have been found to evoke the response when present as single scouts or small invading forces. The glandular source of the Pheidole trail pheromone and the cues by which Pheidole recognize Solenopsis have been experimentally determined.