Thursday, January 6, 2011

Interview by Jeff Lockwood with EO Wilson

This just in from Jeff Lockwood, Professor of Natural Sciences & Humanities at UW:

The reason I’m sharing this with you is that the interview focused on Wilson’s novel, Anthill. He provides an exceptionally eloquent account for why fiction and literature are vital to modern science—indeed, he suggests a moral obligation of scientists to cultivate their capacity as storytellers in order to communicate vital knowledge to the public. In short, the preeminent biologist in the world provides a compelling argument for why an ongoing collaboration between writers and natural scientists is critical to our society. So, if the university administrators that adore science (quite honestly, I do) ever needed a reason to foster the MFA program in creative writing, here it is.
This is the first part of a two-part interview: