Darwin’s Four Great Books: The Origins of a Revolution (Edited) Now in his 80th year, Alabama-born Edward Osborne (E.O.) Wilson has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the world’s most distinguished scientists. A native of Birmingham, Wilson spent much of his childhood in Mobile, Alabama. By the age of 9, he was fixated on a dream of becoming a great biologist. All but completely blinded in one eye from a childhood fishing accident, he developed an acuity for studying small animals, the most prominent being ants. (Javascript is required to view Mediasite content)