Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

201 | Ed Yong on How Animals Sense the World

Jun 20, 2022

In this engaging discussion, Ed Yong, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist and author, dives into the fascinating realm of animal senses. He reveals how creatures like mantis shrimps and octopuses perceive the world with unique modalities, from echolocation to electric field navigation. The conversation explores the intricacies of taste and smell in survival, and the idea that sensory deprivation can enhance experiences. Yong challenges our understanding of perception, highlighting the extraordinary adaptations across species and urging us to appreciate the hidden worlds around us.

01:09:03

Episode guests

Ed Yong

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

6min

Dining in the Dark: Sensory Perception Across Species

11min

The Dynamics of Taste and Survival Mechanisms in Animals

2min

Sensing the Unseen: Taste, Smell, and Animal Perception

19min

Recognizing Green Flags and the Energetics of Sensory Perception

3min

The Spectrum of Animal Vision

12min

Exploring the Limits of Animal Sensory Perception

4min

The Electric Senses of Animals

15min

All of us construct models of the world, and update them on the basis of evidence brought to us by our senses. Scientists try to be more rigorous about it, but we all do it. It’s natural that this process will depend on what form that sensory input takes. We know that animals, for example, are typically better or worse than humans at sight, hearing, and so on. And as Ed Yong points out in his new book, it goes far beyond that, as many animals use completely different sensory modalities, from echolocation to direct sensing of electric fields. We talk about what those different capabilities might mean for the animal’s-eye (and -ear, etc.) view of the world.

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Ed Yong received Masters and Bachelors degrees in zoology from Cambridge University, and an M.Phil. in biochemistry from University College London. He is currently a staff writer for The Atlantic. His work has appeared in National Geographic, the New Yorker, Wired, the New York Times, and elsewhere. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory journalism for his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among his other awards are the George Polk award for science reporting and the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for in-depth reporting. His new book is An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us.

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