Bert Hölldobler is Chair of Behavioral Physiology and Sociology at the Theodor Boveri Institute, University
of Würzburg. He is also the recipient of the U.S. Senior Scientist Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German government. Until 1990, he was the Alexander Agassiz Professor
of Zoology at Harvard University.
Wilson, Edward O. : Harvard University
Edward O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes
(one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson has won many scientific awards, including the National
Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Review
"Beautifully written and illustrated...These fifteen chapters are a bustling but well-organized ant heap,
full of wonders natural and intellectual."
--Philip Morrison, Scientific American
"Everyone should read Journey to the Ants; it is a book to read right through; I have done so twice so far.
It brings back the joy of science and restores the sense of wonder, it is truly food for thought. For me it is
a beloved book that will stay at my bedside."
--James E. Lovelock, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Hölldobler and Wilson have carefully distilled more than 80 years of their combined personal research
and thorough knowledge of the literature to produce a book that is both packed with ideas and information and a
joy to read. The authors subtitled their book `A Story of Scientific Exploration' and, like all good stories, it
has a logical progression and sensible themes and is hard to put down."
--C. Ronald Carroll, American Scientist
Harvard University Press Web Site, July, 2001
Summary
Richly illustrated and delightfully written, Journey to the Ants combines autobiography and scientific lore
to convey the excitement and pleasure the study of ants can offer. Bert Holldobler and E. O. Wilson interweave
their personal adventures with the social lives of ants, building, from the first minute observations of childhood,
a remarkable account of these abundant insects' evolutionary achievement.
