Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It is A Truth Universally Acknowledged That a Mantis Shrimp Must Be in Want of Something to Punch

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

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Ed Yong takes us through the vast world of animal senses with understandable explanations of complicated science and a startling humor that made me laugh out loud, in public, many times. From misquoting Jane Austen to lamenting his poor choices in clothing, Yong adds delightful levity to a complex and fascinating subject. When we think about how animals see the world around them, we are already biasing our analysis based on humanity’s strongest sense, that of sight. How an animal “sees” the world is better […]

There’s so much more to the world than we know

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

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CBR15 BINGO: In the Wild, because it’s about animal senses (which is pretty wild!) A bug called a treehopper communicates by creating vibrations through its abdomen. A dog’s olfactory sense is so acute that it can tell twins apart by their smell. Shore birds called red knots use their bills to feel prey under the sand. These are a few of the amazing sensory tales that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ed Yong reveals in An Immense World. More than a collection of animal facts, An Immense […]

Intricate and unimaginable

An Immense World by Ed Yong

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(cbr15bingo – Strange Worlds square) It’s common knowledge that dogs can smell better than humans and eagles can see better than humans–although even that idea is sometimes hard to wrap my head around. But what about the animals that experience the world in ways we can’t even imagine? They don’t just see farther than us, but they see in colors not available to us. Or they feel the electromagnetic pulse of living creatures instead of touch. Ed Yong dives into the stories of different animals […]

“Forget Orson Welles, and heed Walt Whitman: “I am large, I contain multitudes.”

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This was a delightfully nerdy book to read, and I believe some of you delightful nerds might agree! “Speaking of palms, your right hand shares just a sixth of its microbial species with your left hand.” Every creature on Earth (yes, even you!) is home to millions of bacteria and other microbes. Ed Yong wants to explain why that’s a good thing. Microbes work together to shape our bodies and minds, to keep us healthy and protected, and many other duties. In some species, microbes […]



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