An Immense World

This book was really cool to listen to, especially because it's narrated by the author. I often find that books narrated by the author are a lot more fun, especially if nonfiction.

As for the actual content itself, this book was a lot of fun. I listened to the authors other book about microbes pretty recently, so I was super excited to know that he had another book about different animals and the senses that they have. In a way it's kind of a lot bigger scale than talking about microbes, but at the same time, the way the senses of many animals work, scientists are looking in really small places. Like a lot of the book talked about insects and I've just never thought about the sensory world of an insect before.

I also really appreciate how he spent part of the book talking about how human activity can have a negative impact on the sensory experience of other animals and how we can improve the situation. It's always really nice to see when animals just aren't used as some kind of interesting subject, but then their actual lives in relation to ours are ignored.

Super fascinating book that I probably would have got a lot more out of if I hadn't listened to most of it while trying to go to sleep and when I was sick with COVID. Definitely recommend either way though and I hope that the author has another book out at some point because these topics are wicked cool!

This is one of those books that will change the way you view the animals of the world. We take for granted just how amazing and mind-blowing the animal senses are and just accept them for being the way they are. Or maybe that's just me. But this has absolutely changed my view on a lot of things. I will certainly not look at an animal the same, even my dog.

There is a whole crap ton of information on here, so do not expect this to be a quick read. However, Young does a really great job of giving you the abundance of information in a way that doesn't make you feel like you're in a college class.

I did listen to the audiobook which Young reads himself. He did a really great job with his cadence and pacing so would definitely recommend the audiobook if you would be interested in it.

I cannot say enough about this book, read it!

We tend to think the way we experience the world is the way it is. But animals, using or emphasizing different and other senses than our five, may experience ‘reality’ in entirely different ways. Young leads us on a deep dive into the sensory experiences of animals.

“Five senses,” they told me. How chauvinistic that seems now. Understandably so, but still.

Remember [book:Flatland|433567]? (I like to think everyone read that in grade school but am now wondering if it was only us math geeks?) Anyhow, Immense World brought back those feelings of wonder; of imagining what we know is out there but can never, ever fully understand. A dog navigating the world through smell. The countless ways of arranging color receptors, giving some animals a visual experience we can barely even describe. Touch. Vibration, through air (sound) and through ground. Sensing electrical fields. Magnetic fields! How little we know! And of course, [book:bats|197189543]. All creatures taking their senses for granted, just like we do, but we have that amazing ability to study and learn and devise instruments that help us see-hear-sense farther. And to imagine.

“[...] we can try to step into their worlds. We must choose to do so, and to have that choice is a gift. It is not a blessing we have earned, but it is one we must cherish.” Yong, more than anyone else I’ve ever encountered or heard of, has made me recognize that gift. Has let me glimpse those worlds of sensation. He does so with tremendous compassion and humility.

Will change the way you see the world, and can't help but make you appreciate just how magnificent all the species who share the world with us are.

What a fabulous book. Everyone should read it.

Will change the way you see the world, and can't help but make you appreciate just how magnificent all the species who share the world with us are.

Loved listening to this as an audiobook. As a science book, it was really educational about what we know about the 'umwelt' of the creatures that we share the world with. More than that, it also talks about the effect humans have had on these that most of us don't realize.

A really stunning exploration of sensing. And a really nice incorporation of von Uexküll's "umwelt." Particularly compelling is the emphasis upon the entanglement of communication and sensory capacity.

Ed Yong writes for the Atlantic, and his articles were among the clearest and most rational on Covid-19 during the pandemic lockdown. He has written a fascinating and outstanding discussion and review of the sensory world of animals including ourselves. Each chapter is about a different sense; smell, vision, touch, etc.

Which animal has the highest visual acuity?
Why are Zebras striped?
What colors can your pet dog see?
Why do raptors fly into wind turbines?
Can an octopus see its own skin color changes?
Why do hummingbirds make ultrasonic sounds?
Why can’t you tickle yourself?

And there are also some excellent words to learn, Umwelt, Zugunruhe (my favorite), exafference, and reafference. I highly recommend An Immense World and I’ve added his previous book I Contain Multitudes to my to read list.

An impressive book, full of wonderful facts and some grounded speculations looking at how various creatures sense, and make sense, of the world around them. Ed Yong (the author) reminds us that trying to understand the behaviour of creatures based on what we can sense can be futile. And by forcing creatures into a human centric world (near constant lighting at night, urban noise, artificial chemicals in the environment), we may be altering their behaviour and damaging the natural biodiversity.

Ed Yong starts by introducing the reader to the term, Umwelt (as used by biologist Jakob von Uexkül) to represent each creature's unique perception of the world. He then shows us the Umwelts of various creatures as experienced through the various senses: smell, taste, light, colour, the sensation of pain and heat, contact, vibrations and sound. He then covers three of the more mysterious senses; echolocation and the ability to sense electric and magnetic fields. Each sense is shown by giving examples of various creatures whose ability to use the sense differs and/or exceeds our abilities to use them.

He then closes the book by showing how animals draw upon the various senses to form each creature's Umwelt, and how we are altering what creatures are sensing from their surroundings by 'polluting' the environment with our lights, noise and artificial chemicals.

Throughout the book, Ed Yong features the research and work being done by numerous researchers to understand how creatures sense the world and, possibly, how they make sense of the world using the information provided by the senses.

It may be impossible to fully imagine how even familiar creatures like dogs sense the world compared to us, much less creatures like spiders, birds, fishes, electric eels, moles or elephants (all examples from the book). But Ed Yong gives it a good try, and by the end, you'll probably appreciate the fact that we may never share the Umwelt of other creatures, but you'll be aware that they see the world differently from us and that needs to be accounted for when trying to understand why they behave in certain ways that may seem puzzling to us, limited as we are by our own Umwelts.