Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: I haven't enjoyed a book like this in a long time. I plan to re-read it soon. It leaves you boogled by the complexity that can be introduced by simple evolutionary rules. That fun part is that it is rooted in a reality that can be found on the sidewalks and in your back yard. I almost gave it a ten, but I wanted to leave myself some room to grow. It is a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and fun, but not for kids...
Review: I read someone say that this book could be for kids. While I suppose that kids could read it, some of it would certainly be over their heads like the jokes: "When Marx came up with his theories, he just had the wrong species" (referring to the Marxist behavior of ants.)
Anyway, this book is fun and interesting and EO Wilson has a talent for telling good stories. Ants are simply fascinating creatures and this will leave you wanting to read more about them.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and fun, but not for kids...
Review: I read someone say that this book could be for kids. While I suppose that kids could read it, some of it would certainly be over their heads like the jokes: "When Marx came up with his theories, he just had the wrong species" (referring to the Marxist behavior of ants.)
Anyway, this book is fun and interesting and EO Wilson has a talent for telling good stories. Ants are simply fascinating creatures and this will leave you wanting to read more about them.

Rating:
Summary: The best and only book on ants I've ever read
Review: It's like a 200-page nature show. Completely fascinating. The authors are big-time, famous ant guys, and they've written some of the textbooks on ants. This is kind of an Ants for Dummies, or a book for people who just want to know all the cool stuff about ants. It's scary sometimes, the level of sophistication in ant colonies. As a being, one ant is pretty powerless, but ants' social behavior has evolved to rival, in some instances, the ingenuity and organization of early man. This book's probably not for everyone, but if you can watch an hour-long documentary on Animal Planet, you might like this book.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating journey
Review: There are only a few writers who truly capture the natural world's complex structure, presenting it in a readable manner. Edward Wilson is one of these. Here, he's joined by Bert Holldobler in picturing one of our world's more enigmatic creatures - the ants. This book is a joy to read, whether you seriously study evolution or simply want a grander picture of life's mysteries. This book is a collector's item in reviewing what is known about ants and calling on students to consider how much remains to be studied.

The ants are one of the dominant forms of life on this planet. They've spread to nearly every environmental niche, adapting their habits and colony structure successfully. Wilson and Holldobler willingly convey their awe at this variety to anyone wishing to share it. Among the amazing accounts they relate, perhaps two stand out. The finding of the earliest known fossil specimens by a New Jersey family, and the night-foraging ants of Australia. Holldobler and Wilson's journeys have taken them to remote sites around the planet. They have a fine sense of how to bring the reader into their camps and excursions, sharing their discoveries and their tribulations.

Along the way, we learn how ants form their colonies, breed, forage, make war and enslave or absorb their fellows or other creatures. "Ants all look the same to the naked eye" they state, then show what a fallacy it is to continue believing that outlook. Beginning as solitary ground wasps, the ants have become one of the most complex social creatures in life. Their colonies range from simple bivouacs to huge structures. They can remove tonnes of soil to build a nest or range over extensive territories, terrifying even people with waves of migrating insects.

Anyone seeking to understand even a little of the diversity of life should own this book.

Rating:
Summary: A magnificent pilgrimage through time and space
Review: There are only a few writers who truly capture the natural world's complex structure, presenting it in a readable manner. Edward Wilson is one of these. Here, he's joined by Bert Holldobler in picturing one of our world's more enigmatic creatures - the ants. This book is a joy to read, whether you seriously study evolution or simply want a grander picture of life's mysteries. This book is a collector's item in reviewing what is known about ants and calling on students to consider how much remains to be studied.

The ants are one of the dominant forms of life on this planet. They've spread to nearly every environmental niche, adapting their habits and colony structure successfully. Wilson and Holldobler willingly convey their awe at this variety to anyone wishing to share it. Among the amazing accounts they relate, perhaps two stand out. The finding of the earliest known fossil specimens by a New Jersey family, and the night-foraging ants of Australia. Holldobler and Wilson's journeys have taken them to remote sites around the planet. They have a fine sense of how to bring the reader into their camps and excursions, sharing their discoveries and their tribulations.

Along the way, we learn how ants form their colonies, breed, forage, make war and enslave or absorb their fellows or other creatures. "Ants all look the same to the naked eye" they state, then show what a fallacy it is to continue believing that outlook. Beginning as solitary ground wasps, the ants have become one of the most complex social creatures in life. Their colonies range from simple bivouacs to huge structures. They can remove tonnes of soil to build a nest or range over extensive territories, terrifying even people with waves of migrating insects.

Anyone seeking to understand even a little of the diversity of life should own this book.

Rating:
Summary: It explains a different view of the ants.
Review: This book is a very well written one. It explains not only the life of the ants but the facts that sorround them, as the environment, the food, the sociology, the enemies, the politics. Very easy to read (paperback and spanish edition).

Rating:
Summary: Great teaching aid for non-science teachers.
Review: This book was pleasant and rewarding to read. I came to it via The Naturalist, then Consilience, next Biophilia. It's as well written as each of these, and it shares many broad themes with them. It's different, of course, in the narrow focus, and that yields a different kind of pleasure. Most remarkable to me were the following: the extreme refinements in co-evolution of certain symbiotic species, the genetic basis of the ant's social behavior, the power of Darwinian theory to explain social behavior, and simply the importance of ants. Another pleasure of the book is the occasional insights it offers into the authors' work habits and experimental methods. The book is easily accessible to the lay person. In fact, it's an easy read. The other books of his mentioned above are also excellent.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating journey
Review: What a fantastic journey this book was! The myriad adaptations that these creatures have made to various different challenges is truly fascinating. The photos of different ant species and the many detailed behaviours are very exciting. I would recommend this book to anyone with the slightest bit of curiosity. My only complaint (and certainly not a criticism) is that the writing in this book is clearly aimed at a 12-14 age level. Others may find the descriptions of behaviours and experiments a tad facile...