Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

Nyd den ubegrænsede adgang til tusindvis af spændende e- og lydbøger - helt gratis

  • Lyt og læs så meget du har lyst til
  • Opdag et kæmpe bibliotek fyldt med fortællinger
  • Eksklusive titler + Mofibo Originals
  • Opsig når som helst
Start tilbuddet
DK - Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology

Sprog
Engelsk
Format
Kategori

Fakta

“Margonelli 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

The 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.

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—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.

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.

© 2025 Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux (E-bog): 9780374712389

Release date

E-bog: 14. marts 2025

Andre kan også lide...

  1. At the Edge of Mysteries: The Discovery of the Immune System Shantha Perera
  2. Life on Mars: What to Know Before We Go David A. Weintraub
  3. Parasites: The Inside Story Judy Diamond
  4. Tooth and Claw: Top Predators of the World Robert M. Johnson III
  5. Birthing Romans: Childbearing and Its Risks in Imperial Rome Anna Bonnell Freidin
  6. Avatar-Philosophy (and -Religion) or FAITHEISM Edmond Wright
  7. Lonely in the Crowd: Plugged or Remote?: Global Cities and the Challenge of Hybrid Work Tobia Zevi
  8. Along Came Google: A History of Library Digitization Roger C. Schonfeld
  9. The Little Book of String Theory Steven S. Gubser
  10. Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism Mahmood Mamdani
  11. A History of New York Washington Irving
  12. Tact: Aesthetic Liberalism and the Essay Form in Nineteenth-Century Britain David Russell
  13. The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship across the Modern Mediterranean Jessica M. Marglin
  14. The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics, 1934-1960 Lawrence P. Jackson
  15. Entitled: Discriminating Tastes and the Expansion of the Arts Jennifer C. Lena
  16. A Theory of the Aphorism: From Confucius to Twitter Andrew Hui
  17. Good and Bad Food Science: Separating the wheat from the chaff Leo Goeyens
  18. Jewish Emancipation: A History across Five Centuries David Sorkin
  19. The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics Daniel Schlozman
  20. George Berkeley: A Philosophical Life Tom Jones
  21. Spiritual Lessons from WWII Eric Ludy
  22. Fans Alexander F. Tcherviakov

Vælg dit abonnement

  • Over 600.000 titler

  • Download og nyd titler offline

  • Eksklusive titler + Mofibo Originals

  • Børnevenligt miljø (Kids Mode)

  • Det er nemt at opsige når som helst

Flex

For dig som vil prøve Mofibo.

89 kr. /måned
  • 1 konto

  • 20 timer/måned

  • Gem op til 100 ubrugte timer

  • Eksklusivt indhold hver uge

  • Fri lytning til podcasts

  • Ingen binding

Prøv gratis
Den mest populære

Premium

For dig som lytter og læser ofte.

129 kr. /måned
  • 1 konto

  • 100 timer/måned

  • Eksklusivt indhold hver uge

  • Fri lytning til podcasts

  • Ingen binding

Start tilbuddet

Unlimited

For dig som lytter og læser ubegrænset.

149 kr. /måned
  • 1 konto

  • Ubegrænset adgang

  • Eksklusivt indhold hver uge

  • Fri lytning til podcasts

  • Ingen binding

Start tilbuddet

Family

For dig som ønsker at dele historier med familien.

Fra 179 kr. /måned
  • 2-6 konti

  • 100 timer/måned pr. konto

  • Fri lytning til podcasts

  • Kun 39 kr. pr. ekstra konto

  • Ingen binding

2 konti

179 kr. /måned
Start tilbuddet