Edward Osborne Wilson: The Equilibrium Theory Of Island Biogeography

Edward Osborne Wilson is a biologist from Alabama in the U.S. He has made many contributions to biology over his lifetime which we will review some of later and we will learn a little about how he got to where is today.
E.O. Wilson, as he is known, was a very curious little boy growing up in Alabama and loved discovering new things as well as fishing. One day while fishing, a spine of a pin fish catch him in one of his eyes and blinded him. With this misfortune as well as him being unable to hear sounds in the upper registry be could not pursue the study of birds but instead became fascinated with ants, which he could hold between his fingers and study closely with his good eye. Another major event in his life that helped to get him to where
This theory consists of two parts. One is the rate new species migrate to an island and the second part is the speed at which the species disappears from the island. The greatest determining factor for the rate at which a species migrates to the island is how far away it is from the mainland. The biggest determining factor for the loss of species from the island is dependent on the size of the island because smaller islands tend to have smaller populations that can vanish at a much faster rate than large populations. The overall number of species on the island remains pretty balanced when the number of new species arriving matches the number of species vanishing from the island. This theory can help to predict variations in other ecosystems such as ponds, lakes, and even patches of vegetation depending on how isolated they are from other similar ecosystems and the size of the
Wilson’s success did not come without some bumps in the road. In the mid-70s, he published a book called Sociobiology, which covered wildlife behaviors but also included a chapter saying humans had genetic traits that affect our behavior as well. This caused a major controversy since social scientists at the time had the notion that the brain was a blank slate, so to speak, and that human behavior comes from how we were raised as children and what we have learned. Human nature and instincts were not part of this thinking at the time, which led to a very controversial topic.
Over the years, E.O. Wilson has contributed to the science of conservation biology by campaigning to protect the Earth’s endangered ecosystems, exploration for undiscovered species, and pushing for the creation of the EOL, Encyclopedia of Life Database, which currently contains over 1.8 million records.
From watching the video, Dr. Wilson seems to have a lot of great qualities such as being pretty good at drawing, has a very good sense of humor and a great personality like when the protesters dumped cold water on him he keep control of the situation and was able to carry on with the lecture. What is most surprising is after all these years working in biology and all the discoveries he has made he is still very passionate about new discoveries and learning like it was his first