Letters to a Young Scientist

There is an image at the start of the chapter of a Boy Scout zoology badge. 

Wilson’s first letter outlines how he first became interested in science. As a young teen, he spent a lot of time exploring the biodiversity of the swamps and forests of Mobile, Alabama, where he grew up. He was a nature counselor for a Boy Scout summer camp where he educated younger boys about snakes. The success of this program inspired Wilson to pursue a career in biology. When he reached university for his undergraduate program, academic rigor was very different, and he only had to put in minimal effort to maintain A grades; he acknowledges that it is much more difficult to attain such high grades in the modern day. He decided to study entomology and entered Harvard in 1951 to do his PhD, eventually securing a place as an assistant professor. He has enjoyed a successful career for more than 60 years.

Wilson disavows his “casual approach to early formal education” (26), even though things worked out for him. The academic world is very different now to what it was when he was young, and young scientists will need to work hard. There are more opportunities in scientific study today, but these opportunities are much more demanding. Wilson encourages the young scientist to follow their passion wherever it may take them in their scientific career, because passion will give them the drive to stick with a subject for an entire career.

The chapter opens with a rendering of the path of asteroid 2010 TK7 as it travels through space.

Many young scientists worry that they will not succeed if they struggle to understand mathematics. Wilson believes that mathematics need not be such an impediment, as many successful scientists are only “semiliterate” in mathematics. He is sad to have seen so many potential scientists turn away from the subject because of their fear of mathematics; he sees this as a great loss to the scientific community. To put the young scientist's fears at ease, he describes mathematics as no more than “a language, ruled like verbal languages by its own grammar and system of logic” (32), and argues that anyone who can learn to read and write can also learn mathematics. Math can be useful for mapping population growth, for instance, which requires only very simple formulas.

Wilson encourages readers to become literate in mathematics as soon as possible, because the longer they wait, the harder it will become. It is not, however, impossible to learn mathematics at an older age: Wilson himself first took calculus at the age of 32, when he was already a tenured Harvard professor. Some of his evolutionary biology undergraduates were in the same class as him. Wilson acknowledges that there is a genetic component to math skills, but argues that people without a hereditary advantage can still improve their skills through education and practice. Only a few disciplines require exemplary mathematical skill, such as astrophysics or particle physics. In most other fields, it is much more important that a scientist be able to come up with ideas and concepts than mathematical models. 

Wilson gives the examples of the work of scientists like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Their initial ideas were not extracted from mathematics, but observed in the real world. Darwin’s original work contained very little mathematics; Newton invented calculus to explain his discoveries. Scientists who struggle with math can partner with a mathematician to model their ideas, so they need not be mathematical experts themselves. In fact, it is easier for researchers to find mathematicians to help them than it is for mathematicians to find scientists who can use their equations.

Young scientists should raise their mathematical skills if they can, but if they do not need to do a lot of quantitative analysis, they will still be able to do great work in their chosen field. Those who do excel at mathematics should find a field that allows them to express their skills. Scientists at any level of mathematical ability can find fields that are suited to them.

The chapter begins with a rendering of stars and gas falling into a black hole.

Before Wilson first attended university, he chose ants as his area of specialization. He had been interested in ants since childhood. When he arrived at university, he already had an impressive collection of ant specimens and was given a personal laboratory space for his research. He was also fortunate to have chosen ants as a field of specialization. Ants are found all over the world, play vital roles in their ecosystems, and had not been extensively studied when Wilson started his career. Only about a “dozen scientists around the world” (47) studied ants full-time. As a result, Wilson was able to publish his findings even as an undergraduate, which is very unusual. 

Young scientists should try to select a field of study that is relatively unpopular. In sparsely populated fields, there is the greatest possibility for advances and discoveries where a young scientist can make a name for themselves. They should aim to “march away from the sound of guns” (49), meaning that they should avoid competition and aim to become a world-class expert. In science, every problem presents an opportunity: The greater the problem, the more important the solution and greater the chance to display expertise. For every problem in a specific field of study, there exists a species or phenomenon that is ideally suited to solving that problem. 

There are many famous examples of problem-oriented research in biology. For instance, the bacteria E. coli helped scientists understand a great deal about “the molecular basis of heredity” (52). Scientists might encounter such a scenario in their career, depending on the paths they decide to take. Science is a very broad discipline, and there are many ways for them to find ideal problems to solve that might garner them widespread recognition. The most important thing is that when choosing a path, the young scientist should follow their passion and interests.