Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology

By Lisa Margonelli

Who has the answer to the world's fuel problems? How can we bring ruined land back to life? Where do roboticists turn when they try to engineer a hive mind?

Termites.

Strange though it seems, scientists look to tiny termites for answers to some big ideas. Lisa Margonelli tracks them, deep into their mounds to find out how termites can change the world. Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology touches on everything from meditation, innovation and the psychology of obsession to good old-fashioned biology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Release date: Oct 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781786071910

Lisa Margonelli

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.

Reviews for Underbug

[bookboy804 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Meticulously researched and annotated exploration of termites, those who study them from various standpoints such as biological understanding, use in bioengineering (grassoline), use in robotics (eg. swarming military drones); engagingly written with wry, philosophical, psychological asides concerning science, scientists and the conundrums of complexity.