The hidden world of animal senses – with Ed Yong

The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world.

In this talk, discover the hidden signals that fill the air around us, the plants in our gardens, and the streets beneath our feet.

This talk was filmed on 30 Jun 2022.

0:00 Introduction
0:34 The power of dogs' olfactory system
4:34 The sensory bubbles of different species
7:43 Non-human senses
9:36 Echolocation in bats and dolphins
15:06 Mysteries of familiar senses
18:06 Diversity in the animal kingdom
18:45 Why does a scallop need hundreds of eyes?
21:20 What do other animals see?
30:01 Learning new sides to animals
32:06 Animals show us new ways to think about the world
38:21 Understanding our responsibilities to the planet
42:42 The uniquely human sense

Ed Yong is a science journalist who reports for The Atlantic. He is based in Washington, DC. For his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, he won the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory journalism; the George Polk Award for science reporting; the Victor Cohn Prize for medical science reporting, the Neil and Susan Sheehan Award for investigative journalism; the John P. McGovern Award from the American Medical Writers' Association; and the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for in-depth reporting.

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[yuu_megumi]

What an absolutely wonderful lecture! I hope we can have more Ri talks with Ed Yong; he speaks really well, explains things very clearly and has such a fascination for the subject that he brings his audience to experience this same excitement and wonder towards the world.

[sssssss]

mesmerizing talk - man we truly are the most gifted generation to be able to listen to such high quality information for zero $s. Thanks Ed for the talk. Love it.

[anujarora]

I read this book a month ago and since then I've been waiting for this lecture and finally it's here.

[radientbeing]

As a physicist/mathematician I have a practice I call "bio-imagination", which I use along with science data/facts to attempt to subjectively feel/sense what its like to be in the body of, insects, mammals, reptiles, fish, spiders, birds, jelly fish, etc., etc, . I have been doing this daily for quite some time and the practice has greatly expanded my connection with all life forms and nature. I am currently reading and enjoying "An Immense World".

[adhipmitra]

Nothing short of brilliance. Enlightening.

[TheChris]

I heard Ed gives this exact same speech last night in Sarasota, Florida. If anything, he's improved it since then. Fascinating speaker and writer.

[nellwhiteside]

Amazing. Thank you. Anthropocentrism stops us from really trying to understand and empathize with the creatures around us.

[geordiedog]

My greyhound sniffs Everything on her walks. This is called a ‘Sniffari walk’.

[elenaechevarria]

Thank you Ed, that was wonderful! Always enjoyed reading your articles about animals on The Atlantic.

[hamjudo]

A bluejay was demonstrating a variety of song bird imitations to a friend. It would alternate between an imitation, and the stereotypical bluejay squawks. The other bluejay responded to each squawk with a squawk of their own.

All of the squawks sounded identical to me, but they obviously carried information between the jays. I want to know what they were saying.

I heard that bluejay practicing its impersonations the day before, but there wasn't another one providing feedback. It was out of sight in a tree so at the time I didn't know what animal was making the weird bird noises.

A pair of red tailed hawks live nearby. Bluejays routinely imitate the hawk call to scare other birds away from food that they want to steal. The bluejays swoop out of their hiding place when the other birds fly away in panic. I can't imagine how the jay is planning to use its new sound effects.

[helenew]

Fascinating !Thankyou this was brilliant to watch

[spiralsun]

Humans also have vast differences in the meaning they see in the world. What things are and the relationships between them. It’s different levels of seeing things like other, self, and world. It’s important because It is the reason for all wars and atrocities. But it’s also why we can build huge civilizations. The highest level is the unity of all things, and brings peace. It’s worth understanding that. This talk helps immensely by analogy ❤️‍🔥🙏🏻

Also, I love jumping spiders. They are cute as anything 😊 Also the tree-hoppers who thump on things to communicate 🥰

[manutara]

Such and interesting Lecture...and the final reflection is 👌🏼

[agpc]

I’ve noticed when I walk my dog that he will anchor himself at certain spots to sniff around for a minute. He is only 20 pounds but if I’m not paying attention it jerks my arm back. I let him smell around because clearly that are a is important to him lol.

[raoren]

Just read the book. It's really wonderful. Thanks to it, I love animals more, and even the rat I hate the most doesn't look that ugly and gross for me.

[vmb]

Thanks Ed - really enjoyed your presentation!

[abinavsriram]

Most animal senses are amazing we can use them as iot sensors they are just beautiful

[NA-mgeb]

Regarding the bugs tasting food with their feet, what differentiates a taste receptor from a smell receptor in this context? They're both chemoreceptors

[erichodge]

For the life of me I cannot understand why so many people in this comment thread care so much that this gentleman is wearing a mask. All I heard two years ago was "my face, my choice". Now it seems that what many people really want to do is to control what others do, as usual.

[ForNika]

Ed Yong is the next Sir David Attenborough. He should join Professor Jim Al Khalili and do a talk on Quantum Biology which explains these animal senses.