This cerebral and rather complex PBS documentary, directed by Shelley Schulze, focuses on the theories and writings of E.O., or Ed, Wilson, considered among many other things the foremost expert on ants in the world. Now in his mid 80's, Wilson in his soft-spoken and gentlemanly manner tells the audience how he came to love the natural universe, beginning with his childhood days in Alabama, and how he has spent his entire life trying to preserve nature, and point out the correlations between the complex societies of insects and humans.
The former Professor at Harvard and two time Pulitzer Prize winner, also considered a biologist, conservationist, naturalist, as well as entomologist, has often published groundbreaking theories which, at times, have proved highly controversial and lit firestorms in the intellectual community.
Two sections of the film that were most interesting for me were the ones on recovering ecosystems and how social cooperation in the worlds' of insects and human beings have been vital in their survival on this planet.
Wilson, upon studying the recovery of the destroyed ecosystem on the Indonesian island of Krakotoa after its horrific volcanic eruption (which killed 36,000 people), ran his own experiments on islands of mangroves, in the Florida Keys, and determined that indeed not only did ecosystems recover after devastating events, but that they actually recovered in a systematic and predictable way.
Also, despite humans having a very dark side they have used social cooperation and their altruistic DNA to continue to exist on this planet When one looks at the cooperative and sacrificial societies of a number of insect groups, one can find lots of similarities to their human counterparts.
Overall, I thought this documentary could have used a little better editing, as it was somewhat overly long at about 1 hr. and 53 min.. As mentioned, it's a film that will force you to use your brain cells, and often has technical terminology, so it's not a movie to just escape into. However, I did find the doc quite interesting and informative, and men like Ed Wilson earn my greatest respect for their contributions to Earth.
The former Professor at Harvard and two time Pulitzer Prize winner, also considered a biologist, conservationist, naturalist, as well as entomologist, has often published groundbreaking theories which, at times, have proved highly controversial and lit firestorms in the intellectual community.
Two sections of the film that were most interesting for me were the ones on recovering ecosystems and how social cooperation in the worlds' of insects and human beings have been vital in their survival on this planet.
Wilson, upon studying the recovery of the destroyed ecosystem on the Indonesian island of Krakotoa after its horrific volcanic eruption (which killed 36,000 people), ran his own experiments on islands of mangroves, in the Florida Keys, and determined that indeed not only did ecosystems recover after devastating events, but that they actually recovered in a systematic and predictable way.
Also, despite humans having a very dark side they have used social cooperation and their altruistic DNA to continue to exist on this planet When one looks at the cooperative and sacrificial societies of a number of insect groups, one can find lots of similarities to their human counterparts.
Overall, I thought this documentary could have used a little better editing, as it was somewhat overly long at about 1 hr. and 53 min.. As mentioned, it's a film that will force you to use your brain cells, and often has technical terminology, so it's not a movie to just escape into. However, I did find the doc quite interesting and informative, and men like Ed Wilson earn my greatest respect for their contributions to Earth.
