SENTIENT

An exploration of the ways the animal kingdom is providing insight into human senses.

What can we learn about ourselves by studying a vampire bat, a cheetah, or a moth? According to Higgins, who works for Oxford Scientific Films, quite a bit. In a series of essays, each focusing on an extraordinary sense of a specific animal, the author invites us to open up “to the everyday miracle of being sentient.” While we are taught that humans only have five senses, Higgins argues that we are capable of perceiving the world to a much greater degree than we may think. The limitations we put on ourselves become apparent as we study the ways in which animals use their senses. For example, the peacock mantis shrimp has spectacular eyesight largely due to additional photoreceptors that allow it to see colors that are invisible to the human eye. But as Higgins explains, many humans unknowingly possess a condition known as tetrachromacy, in which they have four cones (instead of three) and perceive the world in a wider range of colors, including a “rich and beautiful mosaic of lilacs, lavenders, violets, emeralds.” In a chapter on the great gray owl, the author suggests that anyone can learn a version of echolocation. When placed in a room similar to Beranek’s Box, the echo-free chamber created by acoustics scientist Leo Beranek during World War II, humans are able to hear blood rushing through their own veins. The reason is that our ears “become more sensitive as a place gets quieter.” In an authoritative and captivating tone, Higgins provides numerous entertaining lessons regarding how information gained from animals can be applied to humans. In fact, scientists are already utilizing this information to develop devices and enhancements to “cure” conditions such as blindness and deafness. Though full of arcane scientific information, the book is narrated in an easily readable tone, and Church’s well-rendered illustrations are a bonus.

An appealingly written, enlightening, and sometimes eerie journey into the extraordinary possibilities for the human senses.