Dr. J. Scott Turner's book is built on his year's working with Earthwatch teams on the South Africa's Insect Engineers project to explore the mechanics of termite nests in Africa and is called "The Extended Organism" (Harvard University Press). It explores the physiology of animal-built structures, from earthworm tunnels to termite nests to the Great Barrier Reef, and poses the startling proposition that these structures may be considered to live. As the promotional literature has it, “This book shows why drawing the boundary of an organism's physiology at the skin of the animal is arbitrary. Since the structures animals build undoubtedly do physiological work, capturing and channeling chemical and physical energy, such structures are properly regarded not as examples of frozen behavior, but as external organs of physiology.” It is, needless to say, a provocative idea, with broad implications for our relationship to nature, but well supported by Turner's research, and already acclaimed by many leading scientists. The Extended Organism is available through Harvard University Press or online bookstores.