|
|
List Price: $55.00 Amazon.com's Price: $34.65 You Save: $20.35 (37%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 595.71782 EAN: 9780393067040 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0393067041 Label: W.W. Norton & Co. Manufacturer: W.W. Norton & Co. Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 576 Publication Date: November 17, 2008 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. Studio: W.W. Norton & Co. Editorial Review: Product Description: The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of The Ants render the extraordinary lives of the social insects in this visually spectacular volume. The Superorganism promises to be one of the most important scientific works published in this decade. Coming eighteen years after the publication of The Ants, this new volume expands our knowledge of the social insects (among them, ants, bees, wasps, and termites) and is based on remarkable research conducted mostly within the last two decades. These superorganisms—a tightly knit colony of individuals, formed by altruistic cooperation, complex communication, and division of labor—represent one of the basic stages of biological organization, midway between the organism and the entire species. The study of the superorganism, as the authors demonstrate, has led to important advances in our understanding of how the transitions between such levels have occurred in evolution and how life as a whole has progressed from simple to complex forms. Ultimately, this book provides a deep look into a part of the living world hitherto glimpsed by only a very few. Average Rating:
 Rating: - Dense with InformationIn the tradition of their monumental 1990 work, The Ants, this new contribution from Holldobler and Wilson is a hefty, substantial and intellectually challenging book. It brings readers up to date on the large amount of research on ants that has happened since. Other eusocial insects are given mention but the focus is ants, to which each of these scientists have devoted large portions of their careers. It is not light reading, but if insects, evolution, communication, and/or biology interest you, ... Read More Rating:  - SuperorganismThis is a fascinating book, but one that could be improved. However, the positive (FOR, below) much outweighs the negative (AGAINST, below). FOR: This book is full of interesting material, most of which is well explained. It follows how eusocial insects construct complex insect societies that display apparent group intelligence by using only a small number of chemical signals and stereotyped responses. It seeks to understand how such complex societies came to exist, based on the competing ... Read More Rating: - RAISING DOUBTS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF HUMANITYThe Capacity to Govern: A Report to the Club of Rome Reading this book with the mind of a political scientist and statecraft advisor is an exciting but sobering experience. It sharpens the binary distinction between the two most successful types of organic live on earth: highly preprogrammed simple entities which aggregate into systems with high quality emergent properties, forming super-organism which behave in ways which we would evaluate as "very intelligent" if we would not know the simplicity ... Read More Rating: - A most magnificant bookAmong the many wonderful attributes of this ever-fascinating and incredibly seminal book are that it is beautifully produced. I own and love my Kindle, but this book is proof that there will always be room for the printed word, with its finely crafted pages, beautiful illustrations and impeccable layout, this is one of the most visually rewarding books I own. None of which gets in the way of the fact that it is also one of the most intellectually stimulating and provocative books to come along since ... Read More Rating: - Endlessly fascinatingThis volume presents current evidence regarding social behavior among the social insects. Although it presents research findings, they style is easy to follow and it is well illustrated, such that the volume suits well also as a "coffee table book" for the layperson. It is, indeed, very hard to put down. A minor quibble I have is that the volume deals almost exclusively with the ants, and thus bees and termites are seldom discussed, despite their being social insects also. No doubt, this bias reflects the specializations ... Read More |
