Underbug an obsessive tale of termites and technology
"Are we more like termites than we ever imagined? In Underbug, the award-winning journalist Lisa Margonelli introduces us to the enigmatic creatures that collectively outweigh human beings ten to one and consume $40 billion worth of valuable stuff annually. Over the course of a decade-long obsession...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2018.
|
| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
MARC
| LEADER | 00000cam a22000008i 4500 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | on1004919593 | ||
| 003 | OCoLC | ||
| 005 | 20180905150600.0 | ||
| 008 | 180126t20182018nyua b 001 0 eng | ||
| 010 | |a 2017059906 | ||
| 020 | |a 9780374282073 |q (hardcover) | ||
| 020 | |a 0374282072 |q (hardcover) | ||
| 035 | |a (OCoLC)1004919593 | ||
| 040 | |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |d OCLCO |d OCLCF |d TOH |d ON8 |d BUR |d QQ3 |d YAM |d IUK |d CLE |d PCB | ||
| 042 | |a pcc | ||
| 050 | 0 | 0 | |a QL529 |b .M374 2018 |
| 082 | 0 | 0 | |a 595.7/36 |2 23 |
| 100 | 1 | |a Margonelli, Lisa, |e author. | |
| 245 | 1 | 0 | |a Underbug : |b an obsessive tale of termites and technology / |c Lisa Margonelli ; illustrations by Thomas Shahan. |
| 246 | 3 | 0 | |a Obsessive tale of termites and technology |
| 246 | 3 | |a Under bug | |
| 250 | |a First edition. | ||
| 264 | 1 | |a New York : |b Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, |c 2018. | |
| 264 | 4 | |c Ã2018 | |
| 300 | |a 303 pages : |b illustrations ; |c 24 cm | ||
| 336 | |a text |b txt |2 rdacontent | ||
| 337 | |a unmediated |b n |2 rdamedia | ||
| 338 | |a volume |b nc |2 rdacarrier | ||
| 504 | |a Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-287) and index. | ||
| 520 | |a "Are we more like termites than we ever imagined? In Underbug, the award-winning journalist Lisa Margonelli introduces us to the enigmatic creatures that collectively outweigh human beings ten to one and consume $40 billion worth of valuable stuff annually. Over the course of a decade-long obsession with one of nature's most influential but least understood bugs, Margonelli pokes around termite mounds and high-tech research facilities, closely watching biologists, roboticists, and geneticists. What begins as a natural history of the termite becomes a personal exploration of the unnatural future we're building, with darker observations on power, technology, historical trauma, and the limits of human cognition. Her globe-trotting journey veers into uncharted territory, from evolutionary theory to Edwardian science literature to the military-industrial complex. Whether in Namibia or Cambridge, Arizona or Australia, Margonelli turns up astounding facts and raises provocative questions. Is a termite an individual or a unit of a superorganism? Can we harness the termite's properties to change the world? If we build termite-like swarming robots, will they inevitably destroy us? Is it possible to think without having a mind? Underbug burrows into these questions and many others--unearthing disquieting answers about the world's most underrated insect and what it means to be human."--Dust jacket. | ||
| 505 | 0 | |a Part I. A termite safari -- Part II. Riddles in the dirt ; An inconvenient insect ; Into the mound ; Complexity is the essence ; Because they are so sweet ; A black box with six legs ; Waiting for Carnot -- Part III. The second termite safari ; Life in the firehose ; Jazz in the metagenome ; Burning very slowly ; Restless streams -- Part IV. Crossing the abstraction barrier ; Influential individuals ; The robot apocalypse -- Part V. Darwin's termites ; The soul of the soil ; The math of fairy circles ; The soul of the cell ; Empathy and the drone ; White ants -- Part VI. Them and us. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Termites. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Termites |x Social aspects. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Technology and civilization. | |
| 938 | |a YBP Library Services |b YANK |n 14829856 | ||
| 938 | |a Brodart |b BROD |n 120923963 | ||
| 994 | |a C0 |b PCB | ||
| 949 | |a schlow |b SANON |c 595.736 MAR |d i |e 39635103883209 |f 646801 |g ddc |j 08/28/2018 | ||
| 999 | |a 423238 | ||
