Sensory Exotica: A World beyond Human Experience - Hardcover

Hughes, Howard C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262082799 ISBN 13: 9780262082792

Publisher: Bradford Books, 1999

Synopsis

Winner, category of Biological Sciences, 1999 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc.
Certain insects and animals such as bees, birds, bats, fish, and dolphins possess senses that lie far beyond the realm of human experience. Examples include echolocation, internal navigation systems, and systems based on bioelectricity. In this book Howard C. Hughes tells the story of these "exotic" senses. He tells not only what has been discovered but how it was discovered—including historical misinterpretations of animal perception that we now view with amusement.

The book is divided into four parts: biosonar, biological compasses, electroperception, and chemical communication. Although it is filled with fascinating descriptions of animal sensitivities—the sonar system of a bat, for example, rivals that of the most sophisticated human-made devices—the author's goal is to explain the anatomical and physiological principles that underlie them. Knowledge of these mechanisms has practical applications in areas as diverse as marine navigation, the biomedical sciences, and nontoxic pest control. It can also help us to obtain a deeper understanding of more familiar sensory systems and the brain in general. Written in an entertaining, accessible style, the book recounts a tale of wonder that continues today—for who knows what sensory marvels still await discovery or what kind of creatures will provide the insights?
Winner of the 1999 AAP/PSP award in the category of Biological Sciences, granted by the Professional/Scholary Reference Division of the Association of American Publishers.

About this title

About the Author:

Howard C. Hughes is Professor of Psychology at Dartmouth College.

From Publishers Weekly:

What's it like to be a bat or a bee? In one sense, we can never know; in another, we can find out by studying the extraordinary perceptual systems by which these and other animals process the world. Bats' sonar lets them discover their prey, their cave-mates and their caves in the pitch-dark. Dolphins use similar sonar systems to discover obstacles, food and one another in the nearly lightless ocean: they even alter their frequencies (like cell phone users) to avoid interference. And chemical communication systems regulate sex in moths, rats, pigs and, probably, people: pigs hunt truffles so well because the valuable fungus contains a pig sex hormone. Hughes, a professor of psychology at Dartmouth, describes not only how these sixth and seventh senses work, but how scientists found out about them. An Italian in the 1790s struck out the eyes of bats (who navigated just fine afterwards); a Swiss surgeon plugged their ears (they got lost). Despite these tests, zoologists until the 1930s believed that bats used not hearing, but some special sense of touch. Most dolphin sonar research, by contrast, requires some measure of dolphin cooperation. Hughes's forays into animal sensoria require that he explain concepts from acoustics, anatomy, neurology, physiology and animal behavior; he does so cleanly and well, though his style can get condescending or gee-whizzish. ("What did [a researcher] see? Well, as already indicated, he saw... ") Nevertheless, readers with any interest in animal biology will want to track this book down--even if they have to use sonar. 124 b&w photos and illustrations. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bradford Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0262082799
• ISBN 13: 9780262082792
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 235