An Immense World (Ed Yong)
OVERVIEW
“When we pay attention to other animals, our own world expands and deepens.”
If spirituality is self-transcendence, then surely stepping outside a human-centric perspective is spiritual exploration. Ed Yong’s An Immense World delves deeply into the sensory world of animals – the ability to sense light (vision), chemicals (smell and taste), pain, heat, vibration, sound, electric and magnetic fields. The scope of this book is bewildering but terrifically entertaining. There is so much beyond what humans perceive and how we perceive it. Seabirds can smell the topography of the ocean, cephalopods can change colour to blend into their environments (despite not being able to see colour), and dogs can store scents in the tributaries of their nose. Mosquitos smell through their feet, spiders outsource cognition to their webs, and some birds can alter and re-alter the mechanical structures of their inner ear, which sensitizes them to changing seasonal environments. Bees can sense the electric halos of flowers, sea turtles the earth’s magnetic fields, and elephants the infrasonic rumbles of family members. There are fire-chasing beetles and echolocating cetaceans (underwater echolocation that can penetrate bone and flesh; dolphins can literally “see” inside you). Even within Homo sapiens, things are not as they seem. There are humans who can see ultraviolet light (like Monet could), echolocate, and expertly wield smell (and did you know that all humans possess “tastebuds” in their lungs and gut? What?!)
An Immense World invests us in the wonder of sensory perception and the mysteries of the animal kingdom. It is also a call to action, to protect not just the environment but the critically important sensory landscapes of our world.
“The majesty of nature is not restricted to canyons and mountains. It can be found in the wilds of perception . . . To perceive the world through other senses is to find splendor in familiarity, and the sacred in the mundane. Wonders exist in a backyard garden, where bees take the measure of a flower’s electric fields, leafhoppers send vibrational melodies through the stems of plants, and birds behold [hidden palettes] . . . Wilderness is not distant. We are continually immersed in it. It is there for us to imagine, to savor, and to protect.”
IN SUM:
Is this book entirely secular? Yes (minus one scientist’s recollection of a prophetic dream).
If I had to describe the book in one sentence? An exploration of sensory worlds.
Who should read this book? Any non-fiction science lover (I tried to get my non-sciencey bookclub members to read it, and not a single one could finish, but I loved it).