{"product_id":"b078x15rf5","title":"Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology","description":"\u003cp\u003eMargonelli takes us on a termite-guided exploration of subterranean tracts of nature, science, and robotics. The book is brimming with flair. ―Peter Godfrey-Smith, author of  Other Minds\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe award-winning journalist Lisa Margonelli, national bestselling author of  Oil on the Brain: Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank , investigates the environmental and economic impact termites inflict on human societies in this fascinating examination of one of nature's most misunderstood insects.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAre 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—and yet, in Margonelli's telling, seem weirdly familiar. Over the course of a decade-long obsession with the little bugs, Margonelli pokes around termite mounds and high-tech research facilities, closely watching biologists, roboticists, and geneticists. Her globe-trotting journey veers into uncharted territory, from evolutionary theory to Edwardian science literature to the military industrial complex. 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhether 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ANT","offers":[{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":67933782179876,"sku":"YSL31199","price":7.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0805\/2614\/7620\/files\/61A7_Y5nKCL._SY1500.jpg?v=1793245572","url":"https:\/\/booktavero.com\/products\/b078x15rf5","provider":"BookTavero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}