Nehaveigur

The 2015 documentary Of Ants and Men (PBS) on Edward O. Wilson is beautiful. He was a biologist connected to nature not only intellectually but also, as the documentary reveals, on a deeper, emotional level.

One of the biggest scientific controversies of Wilson’s life was due to his advocacy of group-level selection. There seems to have been no progress in resolving this issue over the last decade or so. Neither evolutionary models nor empirical evidence support group selection as advocated by Wilson and his dismissal of kin selection as the go-to explanation for altruism was not well received. Given the magnitude of the controversy around 2010, it’s surprising how completely it has receded into the background.