Ed Yong is a science journalist, author and a 2021 winner of a Pulitzer Prize for his pandemic coverage in The Atlantic. His latest book An Immense World treks through the ways animals perceive the world through their senses.
He was in Columbia last weekend as part of the Unbound Book Festival, and he spoke with KBIA’s Lauren Hines. Here's an excerpt from their conversation.
Lauren Hines: So within your latest book, what is one misconception you want to debunk?
Ed Yong: [I]n some ways, the whole book is an exercise in debunking because we do have this natural tendency to map our sensory worlds onto that of other animals. And so, for example, for many dogs, walking is also about an act of exploration. They exist in this world of smell. So I would encourage people who own dogs to have at least one walk a day where the dog has control over the pace. You're letting the dog choose how it spends its time, and you'll be shocked to see like, how often and how long it can spend sniffing something innocuous. And I think that's sort of wonderful for the owner too like it clues you into parts of the world that we are missing.
Every animal is trapped in its own sensory bubble. But most animals are not aware of that. And that ability to step into the Umwelt of other creatures is, I think, likely a uniquely human thing to do. It's a wonderful ability and it feels to me like a gift that we ought to cherish.
Hines: Wonderful. Looking into the future, what's maybe a theory or a field of study that's pushing the boundary right now?
Yong: The biggest future challenge for central biology is working out how animals send magnetic fields. So a lot of creatures can detect the magnetic field of the Earth itself as if they have some kind of living compass inside them. And this sense is really the last unknown sense. It's the only sense for which the sense organ is still unknown like how that organ might work is still unknown. We don't have that for this strange sense. And yet, it is one that a lot of animals seem to have from a lot of the songbirds around us to sea turtles. And I think there's something really intriguing about that mystery. You know, we like, there are these creatures that are tapping into this kind of primal planetary force.
Hines: And you definitely make it a point to have this book, look at animals as animals. Can you explain why you made that a point or a focus of this book?
Yong: So I say early on that there are several reasons why people study the senses of animals. So one is to learn because they can act as proxies for ourselves. But I think that if we only think about nature through this lens, it becomes quite transactional. It really becomes about what these creatures can do for us. I think they truly are fascinating in their own right. I think we are going through the sixth extinction of wildlife, and there is a huge responsibility on us to take that seriously and to take actions that will protect and safeguard the other creatures around us.
And then the final reason is, I think this is also a gift that we have that is unique to us. Every animal is trapped in its own sensory bubble. But most animals are not aware of that. And that ability to step into the Umwelt of other creatures is, I think, likely a uniquely human thing to do. It's a wonderful ability and it feels to me like a gift that we ought to cherish.
See more Unbound Conversations here and see more including the complete schedule at Unbound’s website.
