Lord of the Ants (review)

David Dugan’s Lord of the Ants, a NOVA production for PBS, offers a compelling portrait of entomologist, Sociobiology founder, and biodiversity advocate E.O. Wilson. The documentary provides a chronological sweep of Wilson’s life and work, from his early childhood fascination with nature to the controversies surrounding his 1975 publication of Sociobiology: the New Synthesis and his more recent work with biodiversity. Reenactments of his childhood and early career are punctuated with comments from the narrator, Wilson, and his scientific supporters and critics. Lord of the Ants also provides stunning close-ups of the insect world, as well as footage of Wilson working in the field and laboratory.

The images of Wilson at work highlight a repeated theme in The Lord of the Ants: Wilson never lost his boyhood enchantment with the natural world. This enchantment encouraged Wilson to approach science from the perspective of a naturalist, a perspective for which he won both accolades and derision. On the one hand, he was praised (at the age of thirteen) for his identification of a fire ant that had migrated to Alabama from South America. On the other hand, in his early days at Harvard in the 1950s, his approach to science was viewed as “stamp collecting” and out of touch with the new molecular biology that stemmed from the discovery of the structure of DNA. Soon, however, Wilson had his scientific “eureka moment” that placed him closer to the scientific mainstream (by drawing upon chemistry) and influenced his future work: he discovered that ants “communicate” with one another by exuding chemicals. Wilson realized that this chemical-exuding behavior is encoded in the ants’ genes. From this insight, the narrator notes, “Ed Wilson set himself a daunting task: to investigate the origins of all animal behavior, from ants to monkeys, right through to the most social of all primates, humans. He even invented a name for this new discipline: Sociobiology.”

Wilson’s 1975 publication of Sociobiology: the New Synthesis ignited a heated debate about the role of genes in determining human behavior. The suggestion that behavior was biologically based had a strong association with nineteenth-century scientific racism and with the eugenics movement in the early twentieth century. Some critics believed Sociobiology, like scientific racism and eugenics, sanctioned a biological determinism that justified existing hierarchies and inequalities. Wilson, however, gave an equivocal conclusion in Sociobiology about the exact influence of genes: “Although the genes have given away most of their sovereignty [in determining human culture], they maintain a certain amount of influence in at least the behavioral qualities that underlie variations between cultures.” Lord of the Ants gives a sympathetic account of Wilson as he was subjected to acrimonious criticism from other scientists who saw the potential resurgence of scientific racism.

However, the film fails to present the controversy over Sociobiology in all its complexity. More was at stake than a challenge to a liberal faith in the plasticity of human culture and the non-influence of genes. Some scientists and philosophers raised epistemological questions about Sociobiology and sociobiologists, suggesting that many of the field’s practitioners do not subject their claims to rigorous tests of falsification. Instead, according to Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin, sociobiologists construct “plausible stories” that may or may not be true.

The documentary also lacks an adequate transition from the controversy over Sociobiology to the controversy over biodiversity. The omission is puzzling: The strife over Sociobiology suggests that Wilson became a pariah in the scientific community, especially among social scientists. Despite his diminished status, the narrator states: “The Sociobiology controversy forced Ed Wilson, reluctantly, into the limelight. He learned to use his celebrity status to alert the world to another passion: his growing concern about the state of the world.” The camera reinforces the narrator’s point as Wilson is seen receiving an award, standing next to former President Clinton. However, no explanation is offered explaining how Wilson became a “celebrity” after being chastised for his views in Sociobiology and how his “celebrity...