3.5
Letters to a Young Scientist
ByPublisher Description
Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist Edward O. Wilson imparts the wisdom of his storied career to the next generation.
Edward O. Wilson has distilled sixty years of teaching into a book for students, young and old. Reflecting on his coming-of-age in the South as a Boy Scout and a lover of ants and butterflies, Wilson threads these twenty-one letters, each richly illustrated, with autobiographical anecdotes that illuminate his career—both his successes and his failures—and his motivations for becoming a biologist. At a time in human history when our survival is more than ever linked to our understanding of science, Wilson insists that success in the sciences does not depend on mathematical skill, but rather a passion for finding a problem and solving it. From the collapse of stars to the exploration of rain forests and the oceans’ depths, Wilson instills a love of the innate creativity of science and a respect for the human being’s modest place in the planet’s ecosystem in his readers.Download the free Fable app
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3.5
Mykah
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Soulful.Goddess
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August 🎱
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“I wish I could give this book to my 17 year old self to save myself the headache of changing my major 3 times until finally settling on environmental studies (sciences). Very motivational, but remains pragmatic, while at times anecdotal in the way you would expect an old, but still passionate professor to speak. Would recommend to anyone thinking of pursuing a career in or adjacent to research and the natural/hard sciences.”Veronica
Created 3 months agoShare
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“I wanted to like this, but Wilson's cavalier attitude about the life of insects—sadly too typical of biologists—is distressing to me. He recommends that a curious scientist crush (!) a honeybee to observe the alarm pheromone. His defense that a worker bee has only the lifetime of a month does little to assuage my concerns—the monarch butterflies live similarly brief lifestyles, and ephemerality does not entail insignificance. That a worker bee is "one of thousands" is surely no reason to kill it—I, too, am one of many.
"The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and only later works like a bookkeeper. Keep in mind that innovators in both literature and science are basically dreamers and storytellers."”
About Edward O. Wilson
Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021) was the author of more than thirty books, including Anthill, Letters to a Young Scientist, and The Conquest of Nature. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilson was a professor emeritus at Harvard University and lived with his wife in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Other books by Edward O. Wilson
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