Raghavendra Gadagkar, 65, one of India’s most accomplished scientists, is a maverick. He has spent the better part of the last four decades studying the social structure of the paper wasp, Ropalidia marginata, found so commonly in cities and forests across India that it was completely ignored by everyone else. He has done what few contemporary scientists do—let the subject do the talking. Over years of painstaking observation and analysis, wasp society has revealed some of its secrets t