The Sounds of Life

Hardcover, 368 pages

English language

Published Oct. 1, 2022 by Princeton University Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-691-24098-5

(1 review)

An amazing journey into the hidden realm of nature’s sounds

The natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. Scientists are using groundbreaking digital technologies to uncover these astonishing sounds, revealing vibrant communication among our fellow creatures across the Tree of Life.

At once meditative and scientific, The Sounds of Life shares fascinating and surprising stories of nonhuman sound, interweaving insights from technological innovation and traditional knowledge. We meet scientists using sound to protect and regenerate endangered species from the Great Barrier Reef to the Arctic and the Amazon. We discover the shocking impacts of noise pollution on both animals and plants. We learn how artificial intelligence can decode nonhuman sounds, and meet the researchers building dictionaries in East African Elephant and Sperm Whalish. At the frontiers of innovation, we explore digitally mediated dialogues with bats and honeybees. Technology often distracts us from nature, but what if …

An amazing journey into the hidden realm of nature’s sounds

The natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. Scientists are using groundbreaking digital technologies to uncover these astonishing sounds, revealing vibrant communication among our fellow creatures across the Tree of Life.

At once meditative and scientific, The Sounds of Life shares fascinating and surprising stories of nonhuman sound, interweaving insights from technological innovation and traditional knowledge. We meet scientists using sound to protect and regenerate endangered species from the Great Barrier Reef to the Arctic and the Amazon. We discover the shocking impacts of noise pollution on both animals and plants. We learn how artificial intelligence can decode nonhuman sounds, and meet the researchers building dictionaries in East African Elephant and Sperm Whalish. At the frontiers of innovation, we explore digitally mediated dialogues with bats and honeybees. Technology often distracts us from nature, but what if it could reconnect us instead?

The Sounds of Life offers hope for environmental conservation and affirms humanity’s relationship with nature in the digital age. After learning about the unsuspected wonders of nature’s sounds, we will never see walks outdoors in the same way again.

2 editions

forpeterssake reviewed The Sounds of Life by Karen Bakker

Sound, infrasound, and ultrasound were much more interesting than I thought

4 stars

I'm a sucker for the sort of book that takes an ostensibly mundane topic—here, sound—and tells an impressive take as you go down the rabbit hole. Bakker starts with obviously cools stuff like whale songs, but switches it up repeatedly so it doesn't get boring, and had some real surprises along the way. The idea that fish larvae navigate towards sounds of healthy coral reefs is pretty wild, as is the complexity of honey bee sound-based communication. I also liked to see how not very long ago a notion like bats using sound to navigate in the air was too incredible for scientists to believe, but now most grade-school kids know it as a basic bat fact. This was an impulse purchase and I'm glad I got it.

Subjects

Science
Nonfiction
Nature
Biology
Technology

Lists

Engineering