The Ants
By Bert Hölldobler
And
Edward O. Wilson
Book Review:
Mauricio Bruciaga
Hölldobler graduated from the University of Würzburg. He studied biology and chemistry, and his doctoral thesis was on the social behavior of male carpenter ants. Hölldobler has three main theoretical and experimental contributions: sociobiology, behavioral ecology, and chemical ecology. His study subjects are usually insects even more specifically it is ants. Hölldobler now works at Arizona State University where he and his research team explore the behavioral mechanisms that underlie communication and division of labor systems in ant societies. They also investigate on how ants communicate with other colonies to regulate territories. Throughout his career Hölldobler has won many awards for his contributions to biology. Wilson is a biologist and researcher; his links in biology go with sociobiology and biodiversity. Wilson also a theorist believes in consilience and biophilia. He is also an author; and a naturalist who believes in conservationism. In biology he specializes in the study of ants and he is considered to be the world’s leading authority. Wilson first started at the University of Alabama for his studies of biology. He then he got his doctorate in biology at Harvard University. Just like Hölldobler; Wilson has won many awards. They together won the Pulitzer award for this book “the Ants”. If you were to ask for my opinion if they are the right people to write a book; I would say that their credentials prove to us that they are more than capable of writing this book.
Chapter one is a brief overview of how ants have been able to evolve over the years. It also explains how throughout different regions the ant takes over most of...
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...ublic it was too complex. Another part I did not like the book was it was not very concrete. What I mean by this is that it seemed to have a lot of theories instead of ideas that are already concrete. I feel like I left a lot of information was brought out too long and they kept trying to show why that theory is right. What I really liked was that they showed pictures for the anatomy of the ant but even then it seemed very hard to understand the anatomy of the ant. The most useful part of the book was the 10 page glossary, which if you are not a specialist it is your best friend. Overall I feel like a lot of information I left out because I was not able to fully understand. The other parts that I left out I feel like it was not as important as the parts I put in. It was a long read but I was able to pick up some important and interesting theories.
Mary Cowhey’s Black Ants and Buddhists, explains how to implement a Multicultural Education into the primary grades. Her pedagogy encourages educators to take a step back from curriculum demands, and a step toward teaching children to think critically in the “organic happenings of life in the classroom” (Charney). This book is written in a memoir-like fashion to convey what a classroom looks like when students are encouraged to speak their mind, engage with their community, and learn through rich experiences.
By listing down enough accurate examples to prove his thesis, Thomas presents a clear structured and logically organized essay. For instance, the essay focuses on the steps of building “the Hill”, a collective process that consists in using the efficient group thinking to develop knowledge (233-34). Starting with a unique ant and adding others one by one, Lewis Thomas clearly illustrates the progressive creation of the organism (233). It also emphasizes the importance of understanding the different animals’ way of living and working as an entity, since humans are part of an organism as well. Additionally, Thomas’ description of the beehive’s construction and organization to expand the family is relevant to provide basic knowledge on the subject while reinforcing Thomas’ authority on the topic. Bees form a communal intelligence that builds “symmetrical polygons” and spreads out their “family genome” when half of the members are led by the new queen (234-35). According to Thomas, this collaboration and transmission of information is also observed in the men’s activities. Thus, this other detailed explanation provides a logical reason to the author’s thesis. In short, the processes are effectively used, along with scientific terminology, to present the similar procedures mankind and other life forms daily
The inspiring documentary film, E.O. Wilson—Of Ants and Men, showcases biologist Edward Osborne Wilson’s passion for preserving the biodiversity of our natural world. E.O. Wilson not only values the fascinating creatures (particularly ants) that he comes across during his research and in his daily life, but he also takes action and participates in the Gorongosa Restoration Project at Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, Africa. The destruction of Gorongosa demonstrates the call for us—Homo sapiens—to realize how critical it is to concern ourselves with protecting the very ecosystems that have molded us into the complex species that we are; according to E.O. Wilson, “We adapted over millions of years to wild environments…We really need them” (CITE?). The better effort we make to understand that we are a part of this large, interdependent ecological community, the better equipped we become in not only being
Web. The Web. The Web. 11 February 2014 “Biology: Evolution”. The New York Public Library Science Desk Reference.
Dave Matthews’ use of imagery throughout “Ants Marching” provides the reader with a sound understanding and interpretation of his overall message. To apply this rhetorical strategy, he incorporates several extended metaphors to life with which one can connect and acknowledge. The reader can identify an example of this tactic when Matthews opens with a quote stating, “He wakes up in the morning / Does his teeth, bite to eat, and he is rolling / Never changes a thing / The week ends, the week begins” (Matthews). On a surface level, this quote discusses a common occurrence for the protagonist of this song; however, on a more profound level, this text addresses Matthews’ leading intent: people need to take the chances they still have and escape
...int he had before elaborating on his main idea. One thing that I really liked in the book was the beginning of the chapter Zebras and Unhappy Marriages. Diamond starts the chapter with “Domesticable animals are all alike; every undomesticable animal is undomesticable in its own way.”(Diamond 157) This sentence is based of off the famous first sentence of Tolstoy’s novel Ana Karenina. I thought that this was a clever way to start the passage and catch the reader’s attention. However, the issue I had with the book was that it was repetitive. Jared Diamond would reiterate what he had already stated earlier in the book or passage. Overall the book was well organized and well written. Jared Diamond clearly stated his thesis more than once throughout the book. He elaborated on every point he made and did a good job in convincing the reader of his standing on the topic.
The Revolt of the Cockroach people is a well written book by Oscar Zeta Acosta. He tells the story of Buffalo Zeta Brown as if his own father was telling his life. Brown who was a Chicano lawyer goes into details on what happen when he moved into Los Angeles back in 1968 who’s only attention was for him to write an article for the New York Times and a book. After three months there he meets Gilbert a formal officer of the Chicano Militants. With time and obstacles such as the Chicanos movement in the barrio of Tooner Flats in east Los Angeles he not only became the groups lawyer but he eventually started helping in the marches and protest. In other words, he became one of them. While he was there he was part of the march at the Garfield high school and the
The Ant Man is a American film by Marvel. The hero of the film is Paul Rudd. The Ant Man in the film he used the technology and the science fiction. The idea of the film round therewith context. The Ant Man offers good form and good idea about defence the Ant Man technology from global theft. The Ant Man he from the Avengers team and he has supernatural powers like the Avengers team. The Ant Man he can becomes to Ant sized and works difficult tasks in order to prevent enemies to theft the technology. He has a strong significant through, but in the movie
After several hours and extensive questioning of family and friends, I decided to write this analogy assignment on the vast similarities of ants and terrorists. I had several topics to choose from; however, I wanted to write about something that relates to our present times. There are dozens if not hundreds of similarities between these two. For example they both live in organized societies, they range in sizes from a very few to several thousands. You could also find both of these groups all over the world. These two “species” are well organized, very meticulous and determined. For these and other reasons, I decided to write this paper on this subject.
Leiningen Versus the Ants tells the tale of a wiry old planter, Leiningen, and his fight to protect his plantation and workers against an army of millions of deadly Brazilian ants. The protagonist, a man of strong constitution and a brilliantly sharp mind, demonstrates remarkable tenacity when placed up against his foe. Throughout the story, he shows traits that enable his resolution of the conflict, including stubbornness, intelligence, courage, and physical strength.
All around the world honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate, according to the documentary Vanishing of the Honeybees. This film features two commercial bee keepers and their fight to preserve their bee numbers. David Hackenburg was the first commercial bee keeper to go public the bee population was decreasing. Approximately two billions bees have vanished and nobody knows the reason why. Honeybees are used all across America to help pollinate monoculture crops like broccoli, watermelon, cherries, and other produce. Without the honeybees the price for fresh and local produce would be too much money. According, to this film commercial bee keeper’s help fifteen billion dollars of food get pollinated by commercial
The ants of the colony can be seen as beings who have had their “individuality and personhood” trampled because of the grasshop...
Child and Insect is a lovely poem about the disappointment in life, which a little boy is just running into and starting to realize. Robert Druce has portrayed a simple but very appealing image of a very humane situation in a child’s life. The writer has delivered his massage to the readers trough a game of the little boy and the grasshopper. Child and Insect is a poem filled with great a variety of literary terms such as alliteration, symbolism, onomatopoeia, repetition, comparison, contrast, personification and run on lines which work all together in order to reveal three different stages in the poem characterized by a drastic change in the mood and the tone of the writing.
Stones become hot from the sun and remain warm during the night. The warmth will radiate down into the nest and keep the young and older ants warm. Ants are social insects. Most insects have no family life, but ants are different. Ants have families and live in communities.
Seventh, in some groups of insects, truly social behavior has evolved. Social behavior will allow a large population to survive through difficult periods via cooperation in food gathering, food storage, temperature control, and colony