The Sounds of Life

by Karen J. Bakker

ISBN: 9780691240978

Published: 2024-03-12

When we think of animal sounds, we tend to think about birds or other highly sonic animals. However, scientists are learning that a much wider range of animals, and even plants, use sound - and they are figuring this out with the help of AI and other digital technologies. This book tells the stories of scientists who are using these digital technologies to decode the hidden world of nonhuman sound. The author shows how digital technology, so often associated with our alienation from nature, is offering an opportunity to listen to plants and animals in powerful ways, changing our understanding of nonhuman communication and reviving our connection to the natural world. This book is a story of discovery. Early chapters describe early 20th-century discoveries about whale noise, while subsequent chapters describe how digital technologies have revealed the surprising sonic worlds of elephants, turtles, corals, and plants. Through these stories, we learn that many more plants and animals...