We may think we as humans know a lot about the world around us, but what we know is limited by the boundaries of our senses. We can only see a certain spectrum of light and only hear a certain spectrum of sound, for example. But we're not the only living creatures on this planet, and most of them have senses and abilities beyond the scope of the wildest human imagination. However, Yong attempts to tell us about these senses in An Immense World. He explains how some sea creatures can see in ever direction at once (the mantis shrimp's visual abilities still confuse me) and how bird songs are MUCH more complex to birds than they are to us. He explains how dog noses work and how snakes' forked tongues function, and how bats' sonar is so much more complex (and LOUD!) than we as humans generally assume. Basically, every page brings a new revelation about the umwelten (a German word referring to an organism's unique sensory world) of the creatures that share this planet with us. I'm so glad I experienced this book (I listened to the audiobook, which was read by the author), and I'm excited to check out Yong's previous title, I Contain Multitudes.
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