Where We Meet the World

Starred review from January 2, 2023
This eye-opening pop-science treatise by University of Sydney biologist Ward (The Social Lives of Animals) rhapsodizes about the power of the senses. He draws on evolutionary theory, neurology, and psychology to explain the development and functioning of senses in humans, animals, and plants (peas, for instance, can “hear” water flowing underground). In humans, according to Ward, each sense serves as an “information highway” that transmits “terabytes of information every second,” which the brain assembles into a “narrative” as it prunes, anticipates, fills in gaps with educated guesses, and sometimes overthinks. (Carsickness, he notes, happens because the brain interprets the disorienting sensations of motion as the product of intoxicating poison that it tries to make the body vomit up.) He packs in innumerable fascinating details: stars look white because we see them in dim light that only allows the eye’s black-and-white rod cells to function, a Scottish nurse was able to detect undiagnosed Parkinson’s disease by smell, and goats can sense impending volcanic eruptions hours ahead of time. The science illuminates the complex processes through which creatures make sense of their surroundings, and the delivery benefits greatly from the author’s stylish, evocative prose: “There’s a note of elderly fish, swimming valiantly against the lavatorial flow,” he writes of tasting Icelandic fermented shark. This will change how readers see the world.

January 15, 2023
An overview of the five traditional senses, plus a few others. "A sense can be defined as a faculty that detects a specific stimulus by means of a receptor dedicated to that stimulus," writes Ward, director of the Animal Behaviour Lab at the University of Sydney and author of The Social Lives of Animals. Light activates receptors in the retina, and taste receptors "coat our tongues," but nothing happens without the brain, which converts electrical impulses into our sensual experiences. Colors do not exist; we see "red" because that's how the brain interprets certain electrical wavelengths. As the author shows, the brain evolved for survival, not accuracy. It can't handle every sensory input, so it seeks patterns, takes shortcuts, cuts corners, and sees, hears, tastes, or smells what it expects on the basis of past experience. Ward devotes the most space to vision. "Sight involves a vast number of sensory receptors...and consumes more of the brain's resources than all the rest of our senses combined," writes the author. Despite writing and sign language, sound remains preeminent in human communication. A molecule becomes a smell or taste when it hits a receptor inside our nose or mouth, and smell is responsible for up to 80% of our taste. As the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated, losing the ability to smell limits the pleasure of eating. Long before language evolved, touch was the primary means by which humans communicated, and it remains essential for taking in information on our surroundings and registering pain. It's also the indispensable catalyst for relationships. We constantly touch those around us, and infants require touch to develop normally. Ward also notes how scientists have no doubt that other senses exist. Balance, for one, is no mean feat and requires its own specialized organ in the ear. Many animals sense Earth's magnetic field in order to navigate, and Ward describes some studies that demonstrate its presence in humans. Enjoyable popular science.

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February 15, 2023
You may think you're sensing the world as it is, but really it's all in your head. In this fascinating exploration of the world of the senses, biologist Ward draws from a range of sciences to uncover how our perceptions intertwine with our emotions and behavior, as well as with the broader cultures around us. Far beyond sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell, we may have as many as 53 categories of sense. Those include interoceptive senses that reveal what's happening inside our bodies, and proprioception, which allows us to be aware of the position of each of our body parts. Ward enthusiastically collects examples from the animal kingdom, research, and history to illustrate how we've developed our big five senses. Along the way, we learn that Olympians wearing red in combat sports win more often than expected; that humans can distinguish far more individual smells than hear different tones or see different colors; and that our sex and age affect our senses in many ways. Enjoy this journey to the limits of what we know about our convincing, marvelous world of illusion.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.