I went to hear E. O. Wilson speak last night in San Francisco. Mr. Hammack took his AP Bio students and had extra tickets, so two friends of mine from Berkeley and I got to go as well. I'd heard Wilson speak three times before, and I think this was probably the most interesting time I'd heard him talk. It was structured as an interview, so the interviewer asked a broad range of questions--about science and religion, about biodiversity hotspots, about human nature--that allowed Wilson to talk widely about his interests. One analogy I was particularly amused by was when he said that the world in the 21st century is like the universe depicted in Star Wars: a bunch of adolescent males in a world of Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and unbelieveably complex technology. Most interesting was Wilson's reckoning of the history of the environmental movement in the context of the last 40 years of US politics. I hope that his message of finding common ground on conservation between scientists and evangelicals is well received by the Christian right, but I am skeptical. If anyone can do it, it is probably him.

Today was the University of California Press Hurt Book Sale (paperbacks $5, hardcovers $10). It was awesome, although many of the best books seem to have been snapped up within about ten minutes of the sale's start this morning. I made away with 12 books, for $60. There's a new field guide to the amphibians and reptiles of La Selva in Costa Rica (somewhere I'd love to go again), and a book recommended to me about the history of late 19th and early 20th century San Francisco, "written in a very interesting way". Time to add to my bedtime reading list.