E O Wilson at Willamette University I

Keynoting and kicking off the centennial celebration of the study of biology at Willamette was the well-known and (formerly?) controversial Edward Osborne Wilson, emeritus professor of entomology at Harvard. In the address and question-answer period on Sept. 13, Wilson delighted, challenged and inspired the 1000+ person audience to join him in his latest visionary venture--putting together the "Encyclopedia of Life," an online resource launched this year whose goal is to document, photograph and provide linked information on every species of living thing known to scientists. Before telling us about this project, Wilson took us on a tour of what we know and, principally, what we don't know about living beings.

It might seem ironic that after cataloguing what we don't know about the world for most of his lecture he received a rousing standing ovation. Wouldn't you think that human discoveries rather than ignorance would be at the top of the agenda of the world's foremost living entomologist? I think, however, that by pointing out our limitations of knowledge, Wilson was also pointing the way to new research directions that will keep generations of biologists engaged. Thus, the young people in the audience could probably imagine themselves making a contribution to learning by finding out about some hitherto undiscovered, unnamed and uncharacterized bacterium or virus. We applauded so vigorously at the end of the evening, I believe, because Wilson made us feel both very small and very large; stimulated our sense of wonder; inspired us to learn from all creatures great and small; instilled in us the same humility which characterized his address and manner. The world "out there" is a fascinating place for Wilson, and at age 78 he can still barely contain his enthusiasm for that world.

Aiding his presentation was a clear, concise and precise speaking style that left no one in the dark as to what he was saying. After listening to Wilson for an hour you kind of wondered why any topic should be difficult to understand, as long as you had a sure-footed guide like Wilson to lead you. In addition, as he laid out the "facts" of where we are in our knowledge today, he also laid upon us the ethical burden of preserving the life we long to understand. We are responsible to coming generations, he contended, and one of their most insistent questions of us may soon be: "Why did you let so many species perish under your watch?"

Here are some things he said.

Preliminaries

The modern study of biology has only been in existence 250 years. In fact, 2008 will see the 250th anniversary of the publication of Linnaeus' groundbreaking Systema naturae. Actually, the full title of his work is Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Before we move back to Wilson, it might be helpful to pause on Linnaeus' classification. He identified three kingdoms: plants, animals and minerals, the last of which has long since been abandoned. But note that his "hierarchy" of living things included five categories: kingdom, class, order, genus and species. When I studied the Linnaean system in biology in the mid-1960s, there were seven categories (with phylum and family having been added). Now, with the complexity of the animal world, especially with small living creatures, we have many, many other taxonomical terms. But Linnaeus got us on our way.

Just for those of you who want to keep "up to date," current biology talks about a "three domain, six kingdom" system. The most inclusive category, the domains, includes Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. The six kingdoms are the Plants, Animals, Protists, Fungi, Archaebacteria, Eubacteria. You really can go a long way in this world just by memorizing some basic data--so learn it!

Wilson pointed out that the first 250 years of biology has focused on an intensive study of what he called "model species." Of the 1.8 million or so identified species of living things, a considerably smaller number (he didn't say how many) of these species are "model" (i.e., deeply studied) species. But the task for the 21st century, as he saw it, was fully to identify and to describe the diversity of life. This full description would be preliminary to reconstructing the history of each species on earth. Well, when you start speaking with this kind of global ambition, you certainly have the crowd "hooked."

The study, however, will not simply take place in a vacuum. We Homo sapiens bring to the task certain features of our animal nature that will both help and hinder the process. He described it as follows. We have "stone age emotions," "medieval beliefs," and "godlike technology." Thus, in the attempt to learn about the living beings in our world, we humans will be both the biggest asset and the biggest threat. There are now around 6.6 billion people on the earth (the UN said that we reached the 6 billion level on Oct. 12, 1999), and the United Nations projects that human population will peak at about 9.4 billion later in the century before beginning to recede. That birthrates are going down throughout the world is a very good sign, according to Wilson. An overcrowded planet accelerates the destruction of our natural environment.

Now that we know a few of the parameters of the world in which we live, let's turn to what we know and don't know of living creatures.

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