There are so many passionate people in this world who are committed to discovery and adventure in science -Professor Wilson is one of them. Professor Edward Osborne Wilson is a renowned biologist, researcher and naturalist. He is a Professor in Entomology at Harvard University and a humanist laureate of the International Academy of Humanism. He as been called “Darwin’s natural Heir” by some and was voted one of “America’s 25 Most Influential People” by TIME Magazine.
In the following inspirational presentation on Fora TV Professor Wilson shares his optimism that we still have opportunity to save our planet. Young people take note, if you are thinking of an exciting career then biology is “the dream job” of the future – most of Earth’s bio-diversity is still undiscovered – in adventurous locations.
Our Lecture Notes
Currently we are spending all our time discussing the physical environment, such as overcoming pollution and irreplaceable resources, and giving little attention to the living environment. For some sad reason we think of ourselves as independent from plants and animals to a large degree.
Wilson’s Law of Conservation
“If you save the save the living environment you will save the physical environment but if you try to save only the physical environment you will ultimately loose both”
HIPPO
The letters from the acronym HIPPO represent a scale from the most damaging impacts on bio-diversity to the least impacts.
H – habitat destruction and climate change
I - invasive species – invasive species harm people and damages the environment, and humans are spreading them
P – pollution
P – over population. Over population will take care of itself because we are breading less in all the industrialized countries.
How is bio-diversity broken up
Our biosphere is relatively unexplored. We have only found a minute percentage of the number of species on this planet. Human activity is nevertheless decreasing that diversity at an accelerating rate.
To gain some perspective on what we currently know you can visit The Encyclopedia Of Life. It was started in 2003 and it a free online database profiling every singles species of life on Earth – that we currently know of.
When people think of bio-diversity they often think of plants an animals, but there is also another forgotten world that has much greater diversity, on which all plant and animal life depends.
Nematodes
- little white worms in the ground
- 4 out of every 5 animals are nematode worms
- 16000 species are known – the total number could be in millions
- we don’t even know what they are doing, but they are almost certainly important for the maintenance of the soil
- to be a pioneer in biology Students should consider being a nematologist
Fungi
- 60,000 species are known with estimates of 1.5 million yet to be discovered
- very few have been given a scientific name or are known
- we could not exist without of them
Bacteria
- fungi and nematodes fade in comparison to the number of bacteria that exist
- bacteria make up about 1/2 of the biomass on the earth
- they are the most ancient organism that we know of on earth – “the little things that run the world”
- only about 10,000 species are known
Viruses
- the gene weavers of life
- this is a world that we have not begun to look at it.
- they are being implicated as being vital to the environment and in partnership with bacteria
Some perspective on scale,
“If a human cell is the size of Stanford University campus
A Bacteria would be size of football field.
A virus would be the size of a football.”
Micro-biology
Some bacteria survive only in water above boiling point, while others survive in acidic waste water. This gives some thought that micro-organisms may exist in space (e.g. space plankton) since bacteria is known to travel into the upper atmosphere.
Some bacteria and fungi are known to live on inorganic material (rocks) up to 2-4km below the surface of the earth. They only need rocks and water to survive.
Tropical Rainforests
Most species of organisms are found in the tropical rainforests. Trees are the homes of an immense number of organisms. For every tree species it is estimated that there are over 20 species of insects that totally depend on just that type of tree to survive. Tree canopies are an unknown world above our heads that we are just beginning to explore.
You want an adventurous career? Biological research in a tree canopy is pure physical adventure – see places no one has seen before and discover new species. Help save our planet.
“A society is defined, not only by what it creates, but by what it chooses not to destroy.” ~John Sawhill
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About Danny Sheehan
Danny lives in Hong Kong but is originally from Australia. He is Married to Maggie and together they have two children with whom they enjoy sharing and enjoying an exciting life with daily. Danny's passions are freedom, adventure and discovery, mainly in nature and science but also spiritually. He is a great believer in living in the NOW.
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Passion For life