front cover of Bee Time
Bee Time
Lessons from the Hive
Mark L. Winston
Harvard University Press, 2014

Being among bees is a full-body experience, Mark Winston writes—from the low hum of tens of thousands of insects and the pungent smell of honey and beeswax, to the sight of workers flying back and forth between flowers and the hive. The experience of an apiary slows our sense of time, heightens our awareness, and inspires awe. Bee Time presents Winston’s reflections on three decades spent studying these creatures, and on the lessons they can teach about how humans might better interact with one another and the natural world.

Like us, honeybees represent a pinnacle of animal sociality. How they submerge individual needs into the colony collective provides a lens through which to ponder human societies. Winston explains how bees process information, structure work, and communicate, and examines how corporate boardrooms are using bee societies as a model to improve collaboration. He investigates how bees have altered our understanding of agricultural ecosystems and how urban planners are looking to bees in designing more nature-friendly cities.

The relationship between bees and people has not always been benign. Bee populations are diminishing due to human impact, and we cannot afford to ignore what the demise of bees tells us about our own tenuous affiliation with nature. Toxic interactions between pesticides and bee diseases have been particularly harmful, foreshadowing similar effects of pesticides on human health. There is much to learn from bees in how they respond to these challenges. In sustaining their societies, bees teach us ways to sustain our own.

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front cover of Biologically-Inspired Radar and Sonar
Biologically-Inspired Radar and Sonar
Lessons from nature
Alessio Balleri
The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2017
Nature presents examples of active sensing which are unique, sophisticated and incredibly fascinating. There are animals that sense the environment actively, for example through echolocation, which have evolved their capabilities over millions of years and that, as a result of evolution, have developed unique in-built sensing mechanisms that are often the envy of synthetic systems.
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front cover of Bringing Conservation to Cities
Bringing Conservation to Cities
Lessons from Building the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge
John H. Hartig
Michigan State University Press, 2014
There is growing interest in re-connecting urban residents with nature, but most conservationists want to work in pristine areas, and most urban areas are considered too degraded to rank high on conservation priority lists. Bringing Conservation to Cities is a timely and informative exposé of what it takes to foster a conservation ethic in a major urban area—complete with critical lessons learned—and to simultaneously inspire and develop the next generation of urban conservationists. The book explores the new urban conservation frontier, with its numerous challenges and opportunities, and fosters more urban conservation initiatives throughout the world.
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front cover of Buy It Now
Buy It Now
Lessons from eBay
Michele White
Duke University Press, 2012
In Buy It Now, Michele White examines eBay and its emphasis on community and social norms, revealing the cultural assumptions about gender, race, and sexuality that are reinforced throughout the site. She shows how instructional texts, rule systems, and advertisements "configure the user," allowing eBay to indicate how the site is supposed to function while also upholding particular values and practices. White details how eBay reinforces stereotypes about gender and sexuality, looking, for example, at descriptions included in wedding dress listings, and how eBay directs individuals to the "Adult Only" part of the website when they use the search terms "gay" and "lesbian." She discloses the ways that eBay promises a caring community but its "Black Americana" category reproduces racism by allowing sellers' narratives that excuse and romanticize slavery and insult African Americans. White also looks at how participants challenge eBay's categories, rules, and values, examining widely used strategies of resistance by sellers and buyers in the lesbian and gay interest listings. By analyzing the organizational and cultural logics present in eBay, White emphasizes how other Internet settings, including craigslist, are not as transparent, community-oriented, and empowering as they claim. She proposes methods for researching and reconceptualizing new media sites.
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