Lyall Watson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lyall Watson

Lyall Watson (born April 12, 1939) is a botanist, zoologist, biologist, anthropologist, ethologist, and author of many new age books, among the most popular of which is the best seller Supernature. Lyall Watson tries to make sense of natural and supernatural phenomena in biological terms. He is credited with the first published use of the term Hundredth Monkey in his 1979 book, Lifetide. It is a hypothesis that aroused both interest and ire in the scientific community and continues to be a topic of discussion over a quarter century later.

He has served as director of the Johannesburg, South Africa zoo, an expedition leader to various locales, a writer and producer for the BBC, and Seychelles commissioner for the International Whaling Commission.

Watson lives and writes in Ireland and New Mexico.

1 Education
2 Writing career
3 Bibliography
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Education

Born in South Africa, Watson had an early fascination for nature in the surrounding bush, learning from Zulu and !Kung bushmen. Watson attended boarding school at Rondebosch Boys' High School in Cape Town, and in 1958 earned degrees in botany and zoology before securing an apprenticeship in palaentology under Raymond Dart, leading on to anthropological studies in Germany and the Netherlands. He has additional degrees in chemistry, geology, marine biology and ecology, indicating a broad range of interests. Watson earned a doctor of philosophy degree in ethology under Desmond Morris at London Zoo.

[edit] Writing career

Lyall Watson began writing his first book, Omnivore during the early 1960s while under the supervision of Desmond Morris at London Zoo, and has written more than 20 others. His writing style is enthusiastic and exciting as he introduces scientific theories that gradually make the unbelievable very real and acceptable.