The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants

by Karen Bakker

Overview

An amazing journey into the hidden realm of nature’s sounds

The natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. Scientists are using groundbreaking digital technologies to uncover these astonishing sounds, revealing vibrant communication among our fellow creatures across the Tree of Life.

At once meditative and scientific, The Sounds of Life shares fascinating and surprising stories of nonhuman sound, interweaving insights from technological innovation and traditional knowledge. We meet scientists using sound to protect and regenerate endangered species from the Great Barrier Reef to the Arctic and the Amazon. We discover the shocking impacts of noise pollution on both animals and plants. We learn how artificial intelligence can decode nonhuman sounds, and meet the researchers building dictionaries in East African Elephant and Sperm Whalish. At the frontiers of innovation, we explore digitally mediated dialogues with bats and honeybees. Technology often distracts us from nature, but what if it could reconnect us instead?

The Sounds of Life offers hope for environmental conservation and affirms humanity’s relationship with nature in the digital age. After learning about the unsuspected wonders of nature’s sounds, we will never see walks outdoors in the same way again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691240978
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/12/2024
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Karen Bakker (1971–2023) was a professor at the University of British Columbia and earned her PhD from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She received numerous awards throughout her career, including an Annenberg Fellowship (Stanford University), a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Radcliffe Fellowship (Harvard University).

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Sounds of Life 11

2 The Singing Ocean 27

3 Quiet Thunder 44

4 Voice of the Turtle 63

5 Reef Lullaby 80

6 Plant Polyphonies 99

7 Bat Banter 119

8 How to Speak Honeybee 138

9 The Internet of Earthlings 158

10 Listening to the Tree of Life 180

Acknowledgments and List of Interviewees 205

Appendix A How to Start Listening 209

Appendix B Further Reading 213

Appendix C Brief Overview of Research on Bio- and Ecoacoustics 215

Notes 221

References 251

Index 345

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Can we mobilize digital tech to fight back against biodiversity loss? The Sounds of Life gives us a rare gift: hope in a time of environmental emergency.”—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything

“Beautifully written, thoroughly researched, and packed with insight. A wonderful invitation to expansive listening.”—David George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction

“The whole world is communicating and singing. Even plants are in on the conversation. This astonishing book will forever change the way you hear the world. More important, it will make you a better listener. Karen Bakker’s writing and storytelling are fully up to the subject, and her scholarship is impeccable.”—Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel and Becoming Wild

“The Sounds of Life is an ode to the symphonies below our feet, hidden in the skies and beneath the water, and singing to us across hills, valleys, and forests. Come encounter how the best of science can listen in to our planet and help us become the ancestors future generations need us to be.”—Éliane Ubalijoro, Global Hub Director, Canada, Future Earth

“This book harmonizes ancient wisdom with contemporary research about the sounds of life. In clear and compelling prose, Bakker reveals how Indigenous knowledge mingles with cutting-edge scientific inquiry to deepen our understanding of life’s rhythms. If whales, fish, bats, turtles, plants, and bees could write endorsements, I think they would highly recommend this book.”—John Borrows, University of Victoria

“The Sounds of Life is a fascinating and engaging read for scientists and the general public alike. The book is meticulously researched and illuminates the captivating world of natural sounds, many of which evade the human ear.”—Holger Klinck, K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell University

Editorial Reviews

"This book is recommended not only for researchers in bioacoustics, but also for students of animal behavior, ecology, nature conservation, and biology."

Conservation Biology

"Bakker’s book is full of stories of wonder and curiosity about the world of sound that constantly surrounds humanity."

Mongabay

"Nature lovers will delight in [Bakker's] chronicle of the emerging technologies tuning us into a new world of non-human sound and conversation."

Globe & Mail

"Nature lovers will delight in [Bakker's] chronicle of the emerging technologies tuning us into a new world of non-human sound and conversation."

Globe and Mail

"Impeccably written, soundly researched, and utterly fascinating. . . . Between and around the book’s hard science, the author wraps accessible and warmly told human narratives such as the tale of the dying man who on his last sea trip first realized whales communicated with each other. Thus, The Sounds of Life is filled with a certain kind of wild, brilliant charm that makes it very readable for the scientific and the nonscientific minded alike."

Compulsive Reader

Winner of the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books for Young Adults

Finalist for the PROSE Award in Popular Science and Mathematics, Association of American Publishers

"Winner of the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, Northland College"

"Winner of the Nautilus Book Award, Animals & Nature Section"

"Winner of the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, BC and Yukon Book Prizes"

"Meticulously researched and colorfully presented . . . the first [book] to integrate so many dimensions of the field in a way that is accessible to nonexperts. It is a wonderful mix of animal ecology, narratives of science-doing, futurism, and accounts of Indigenous knowledge that is as interdisciplinary as the field itself."—-Benjamin Gottesman, Science

"Bakker's well-researched stories showcase the mysterious communication styles of whales, elephants, turtles, corals, plants, bats, and bees as told by the scientists who care enough to listen. . . . These scientific breakthroughs couldn't come at a better time."—-Krystal Vasquez, Sierra

"Bakker ladles academic research liberally onto the reader in short, spare sentences that build up to a comprehensive whole. Her deep knowledge is worn lightly throughout the book, so that you never feel overwhelmed."—-Chris Stokel-Walker, New Scientist

"[I] couldn’t put [The Sounds of Life] down. . . . [A] fascinating and forward-looking book."—-Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today

From the Publisher

"Nature lovers will delight in the...chronicle of the emerging technologies tuning us into a new world of non-human sound and conversation"

The Globe and Mail