B u l l e t i n - Noble and Greenough School

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Pulitzer Prize Winner speaks
E.O. Wilson, one of the world’s most
distinguished scientists, spoke at Assembly
in Lawrence Auditorium Jan. 11.
Wilson is a professor and honorary curator
in entomology at Harvard. In
1975, he published Sociobiology: The
New Synthesis, a work that features ants
and attempts to explain human social
behaviors such as aggression and altruism.
Fred Sculco, retired Nobles science
teacher, introduced Wilson. “It is a distinct
pleasure,” he said. “[But] how do
you summarize a man who stands as
tall as any redwood in the forest?”
Wilson, a two-time Pulitzer Prizewinning
author, shared with the Nobles
community tales from his latest adventure
in the South Pacific, where he
partnered with French and German
scientists on the largely unexplored islands
of New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
There, Wilson, who has identified
thousands of new species and named
450 of them, saw for the first time the
rare kagu, a flightless bird and the only
surviving member of the genus Rhynochetos.
He also found an ancient and
aggressive ant, the Myrmecia or bull
ant. Wilson called it “an ant worth our
attention—a primitive species.”
He suggested that humans have destabilized
a beautiful planet and that a
cultural shift is required—sustainability
must be valued. He pointed to Costa
Rica as one nation that has systematically
prioritized natural resources and
education.
Wilson also talked about the potential
to eradicate genetic diseases, the
ethical dilemmas that will come with
genetic manipulation, his view on religious
creation stories, the desirability of
the distribution of human genotypes,
and genetically modified agriculture.
NEWS, THEATRE, SPORTS AND MORE
e.o. Wilson
traNsformiNg a
CouNtry
At Assembly on Feb. 8, Nobles
welcomed author and Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist Isabel
Wilkerson. Wilkerson talked about
the Great Migration—the move of
6 million Southern blacks to the North
and the subject of her New York Times
bestseller, The Warmth of Other Suns.
For the book, which won the National
Book Critics Circle Award and
other honors, Wilkerson spent 15 years
researching the post-WWI period. She
interviewed 1,200 people; the final narrative
highlights the journeys of three
Southern blacks.
She said that the migrations changed
the country demographically and allowed
for new lineages. She noted that
cultural icons whose parents were part
of the migration—Diana Ross, Michael
Jackson, Toni Morrison—would not
have been born had their families not
made a courageous, individual decision
to flee the oppression.
“Any migration can be judged by
what happens to the children,” she said.
isabel Wilkerson
the Nobles bulletiN spring 2012 3