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Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology, by Lisa Margonelli
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Review
"A timely, thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human, as much as what it means to be termite, and a penetrating look at the moral challenges of our ongoing technological revolution."―Lucy Cooke, the New York Times“Termites are not just the destructive force that homeowners know and hate―‘architects of negative space,’ as environmental writer Lisa Margonelli wittily puts it. They also comprise a kind of entomological three-ring circus, and this round-up of research on the eusocial insects is a ticket to the show . . . This is a wild ride through a hidden microcosmos stretching from Australia to Namibia.†―Barbara Kiser, Nature“Margonelli uses her ‘obsessive’ termite tale to open wider discussions about everything from the evolution of superorganisms to the morality of military drones. Her work represents science writing at its most enjoyable and informative best.†―Carl Hays, Booklist"Unlikely but fascinating...[this] far-ranging work touches on the nature of individuality, the use of drones by the military, the applicability of concepts of good and evil to science, and the creation of biofuels created using the termite gut, among other topics. Margonelli brings all of this to light by making complex, cutting-edge science understandable to the general reader, while also conveying the excitement, frustration, and plain drudgery inherent in the scientific endeavor. ...Margonelli has written a book as entertaining as it is informative." ―Publishers Weekly"This book is about termites the way the Bible is about men with beards. Yes, it takes you into the mounds and inside the bugs, but also deep into the strange labs and pulsing, eclectic minds of the roboticists, geneticists, physicists, and ecologists who try to figure them out. Perhaps best of all, it takes you deep into the brain of Lisa Margonelli, one of the finest writers and most original thinkers we have. A surprising, swirling, fantastically unpredictable, thought-provoking, funny, and (depending on your species) delicious book." ―Mary Roach, author of Stiff"In a unique voice that's wry, inventive, and acrobatic, Margonelli takes us on a termite-guided exploration of subterranean tracts of nature, science, and robotics. The book is brimming with flair. Prepare to find yourself absorbed." ―Peter Godfrey-Smith, author of Other Minds
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About the Author
Lisa Margonelli is the author of the national bestseller Oil on the Brain: Petroleum’s Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank and writes the Small Science column for Zócalo Public Square, where she is a senior editor. From 2006 to 2012, she was a fellow at the New America Foundation. She has written for The Atlantic, Wired, Scientific American, The New York Times, and other publications. She lives in Maine.
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Product details
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st Edition edition (August 21, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374282072
ISBN-13: 978-0374282073
Product Dimensions:
6.4 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.0 out of 5 stars
26 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#119,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
If you're looking for the termitological equivalent of one of EO Wilson's ant books, this isn't it, although you will learn quite a lot about termites here. Instead, this is a really, really good story about how science is done. While the author is admittedly obsessed with termites, this book is more about the different ways different labs across the world study termites, sometimes for their own sake, rather more often as proxies for other obsessions, such as building swarm robots, using synthetic biology to hack the biochemistry of termite guts into bioreactor systems to make "grassoline" out of cellulose, mathematical biology, restoration, and others. As the book progresses, it opens a (to me, very familiar) window into how science is really done, how understanding something as seemingly unhuman as a termite both shakes people out of their habitual thought patterns and reveals deep commonalities in all life, how accidental discoveries reshape labs and careers, how big business and the military shape what questions get asked and answered, and where the frontiers of biology are at the moment. This is one of the best books I've read in the last year.
The first third or so of the book is pretty interesting - the author makes the termite into an exceptionally interesting little critter. After a while, the book totally loses focus and i guess in it's defense, it tries to address waaaay too many things. Termites, the scientific process, the people in the process, ecological/military issues, social/moral/indigenous issues . Add to this that the time line jumps around for no particular reason. Add to this, there was really no solution or even wrapping up of the original gist of the book - the termite/symbiont story. Very disappointing
This is an exceptional book.It is, nominally, about termites, but also about the state of biology today: is the termite the insect, or the insect plus the biota inside it that help it digest cellulose? Or should we be talking about the collection of individuals in the colony? Or all of that, plus the fungus farm it manages? Or the entire colony and the environmental processes in the mound it makes? Are there even useful sharp lines among those perspectives?That might sound loopy, but it's in line with microbiome thinking of the moment. And it's a mind-bending spectrum to consider in detail, as clearly as Margonelli presents it.She uses insights and lessons from the bugs to reflect on robots, and drones, and other technologies, all of which play a part in the research on termites. She gets to emergent behavior, and our cluelessness as to how the brain works. She considers the ethics of swarming technology in warfare.She covers all kinds of territory, intellectually and geographically. She talks to absolutely everybody.I'm a computer scientist, raised on the remarkable power of abstraction. It's the essential construct that we've used to build such powerful, reliable engineered systems. My brothers and sisters in the craft will appreciate this excerpt from the book:"[Some prominent biologists] mused in a paper published in Cell: 'An open question is whether biology is genuinely modular in an engineering sense or whether modularity is only a human construct that helps us understand biology.' They questioned whether abstraction was 'a useful tool or a necessary evil.' ... Perhaps the question wasn't whether we could reengineer E. coli to make grassoline. Maybe it was whether reengineering biology to the point where we could understand it would do us any good."
I was extremely disappointed in reading this book and never finished it. This is the new form of journalism, storytelling, social media conglomeration of sorts, and was more about the physical gesticulations of the scientists - how they reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun while looking through microscopes and observing the the little fellows, instead of getting to the fricking idea that this book is about termites! That's all I have to say about that!
The sample for this book was great. On the strength of that I ordered the book. The first few chapters followed suit, but soon the book began to veer off on tangents that clearly were meaningful to the author, but had absolutely nothing to do with advancing a theme about termites. Finally, in disgust, I tossed the book aside 3/4 of the way through. Not finishing a book is something I rarely do, but in this case it was entirely warranted.
This is the perfect book to give to someone who doesn’t read, someone who just wants a pretty book to sit on the table. Anything worthwhile between its covers is overwhelmed by the clumsy, amateurish writing. Get an editor!
I’ve never given termites much thought, and couldn’t imagine the topic being interesting enough for an entire book. I’m so glad I was wrong. This is a page-turner! About termites! Or, actually, a fascinating story about termites, the scientists and roboticist who study them, human nature, and our impact on the world.Margonelli also explores how cultural biases shape and distort scientific inquiry, who is funding a lot of these experiments, and the sometimes tragic end uses of innovation. All while frequently being laugh-out-loud funny. A book about termites and science that is also hilarious. Who would have thought? If you love a good read, you’ll love this one. Buy it and surprise yourself.
This was a Great introduction to a world which impacts me daily but of which I know very little. The people as well as the termites were fascinating. The complex we call life remains a mystery to me but this book helped.
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