Edward O. Wilson, the pioneering Harvard biologist who argued for a new vision of human nature in Sociobiology and warned against the decline of ecosystems, has died. The announcement said Wilson was "called `Darwin's natural heir,' and was known affectionately as `the ant man' for his pioneering work as an entomologist." In 1979, On Human Nature — the third volume in a series including The Insect Societies and Sociobiology — earned Wilson his first Pulitzer Prize. Transformed the fieldWilson's sociobiology theories transformed the field of biology and reignited the nature vs. nurture debate among scientists. Based on data about many species, Wilson argued that social behaviours from warfare to altruism had a genetic basis, an idea that contradicted the prevailing view that cultural and environmental factors determined human behaviour.

Source: CBC News December 28, 2021 01:01 UTC