Underbug by Lisa Margonelli

Source of book: Borrowed from the library

This book is kind of a broad and rambly look at termites, the various research projects involving them, and the ways in which they intersect with humanity. Margonelli spent parts of a decade more or less obsessed (her own words) with termites, leading her around the world, and putting her in contact with biologists, roboticists, geneticists, and other scientists, and many more. The book starts off pretty normally, with her account of an expedition to collect termites, but gets pretty far in the weeds as the book goes along. 

Termites are pretty fascinating, I must admit. They are one of the most ancient creatures on the planet, and are part of the hidden biology which supports all other life. They are social insects, but evolved on a totally different branch than the more familiar hymenoptera - bees, wasps, and ants. They are most closely related to cockroaches, particularly genetically. And, even more fascinatingly, they exist symbiotically with thousands of kinds of bacteria and protists which enable them to digest cellulose. 

For me, I found the parts of the book that were actually about termites to be quite interesting. The recent discoveries of the complex multi-organism colonies in the termite guts, for example, were awesome. The idea of huge clumps of organisms of various kinds which have formed a symbiotic colony is rather at the foundation of how scientists believe life made the jump from single-cell to multi-cell organisms. Which is why animals, from termites to humans, actually have more bacteria and protist cells in our bodies than “our” cells. 

Likewise, the sections on termite mounds and behavior were enlightening. Margonelli clearly knows and loves her subject. Throughout, her enthusiasm makes even the more boring sections seem interesting. 

That said, there are some things that irritated me about the book. First, Margonelli treats it rather like a memoir of her own exploration, rather than a book imparting information. While one of my favorite writers, Mary Roach, tends to do this as well, in Roach’s case, her outrageous journeys are part of the fun - and Roach pokes fun at herself and keeps her tongue firmly in her cheek. Margonelli, on the other hand, is earnest. Very earnest. She takes herself and her research very seriously. Which is fine. But just not that interesting when she inserts too much of herself in the story. 

Similarly, while it is nice to learn about the people who conduct the research, these sections tended to get a bit long and involved; yet afterward, despite the detail, it was difficult to keep track of the many characters and what they were researching. 

This isn’t to say that the research itself wasn’t fascinating - it was. But too much of the book was about the grind of research, and too little about what it has revealed. Which, I guess would be a good way to write a book about how much of research is repetitive and mind-numbing. But this wasn’t that book. 

I have mixed feelings about Margonelli’s tendency to philosophize. She strikes me as kind of the new-age hippie sort (except with legit journalistic credentials and a solid science background.) Sometimes, this is grating. But plenty of times, she hits on genuinely memorable thoughts. One that particularly struck me is her observation that being a termite kind of looks like fun. 

There is an old canard about termites building civilization without reason, but watching them, I wonder if there can be any civilization, or organization, without joy. 

There is, after all, a joy in coming together to accomplish a goal. (Hey, I’m a musician - there is truly a high from making music with others.) We too are social creatures. 

Another line was so good, I have to quote it. It wasn’t original to Margonelli, but to one of the researchers she spent time with. (And he borrowed it from somewhere - it was apparently a joke going around.) This particular research was focused on understanding “complex systems,” such as the behavior of hive insects. As the joke goes, “We’re all just waiting for Carnot.” Understanding the joke, of course, requires a knowledge of Nicolas Carnot, the father of thermodynamics, as well as Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot. Pretty much all of our modern technology rests on Carnot’s theories about how heat works - his ideas revolutionized science. In the case of complex systems, however, Carnot - the person who can draw unifying explanations from the data - hasn’t yet arrived. 

One particular factual bit also stood out. Apparently, termites don’t fit the stereotype of industrious insects. (I mean, this dates at least as far back as Aesop and the Bible.) Termites do not work all the time, and a number of them seem to do very little at all. The researchers speculated about a reserve fighting force, or guards, or perhaps just senior citizens. But the fact of the matter is that the termite mound does not appear to be a matter of pure peak efficiency. There may indeed be “insect slackers” just as there are in human society. (Or, as Margonelli muses, perhaps they are philosophers...or the termite versions of Bill Murray.)

Overall, I quite enjoyed most of the book, with the caveat that a few spots dragged a bit. I am kind of tempted to seek out her other book on the petroleum industry. I get the impression that her work on that book got her interested in termite research, because of the possibility of replacing gasoline with “grassoline” - sustainable cellulose based fuel, in which the gut microorganisms of termites could play a key role. Ah, the ways that our brains follow trails.