Sentient
What Animals Reveal About Our Senses
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5.0 • 6 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
In Sentient, Jackie Higgins assembles a menagerie of zoological creatures – from land, air, sea and all four corners of the globe – to understand what it means to be human.
'Spellbinding . . . More than any other book, [Sentient] has made me think differently about the world this year.' – Financial Times Best Books of the Year
The peacock mantis shrimp can throw a punch that can fracture aquarium walls.
The great grey owl can hear many decibels lower than the human ear.
The star-nosed mole’s miraculous nose allows it to catch worms in as little as 120 milliseconds.
In Sentient we also meet the four-eyed spookfish and its dark vision, the vampire bat and its remarkable powers of touch, as well as the common octopus, the Goliath catfish and the duck-billed platypus. Each zoological marvel illustrates the surprising sensory powers that lie within us and enables us to engage with the world in ways we never knew possible.
'Lyrical and lucid . . . Higgins makes popular science accessible.' – Observer
Customer Reviews
fascinating & inspiring
This book is built in a way which causes you to doubt and question your own set of senses before reassuring you, via a number of investigations into animals renowned for sensory prowess in a particular area, that we’re all incredibly adaptable, brains are astoundingly plastic and life is full of compelling questions and challenges surrounding our perceptions.
It’s a constructive reminder of the dogmatic view of our senses which still prevails through society, a relic from the great thinker Aristotle which needs rethinking and reopening to allow more than the five senses in.
I felt really inspired and nourished by this book and keep having to refer back to it halfway through a thought or conversation.
Recommended to anyone with questions about the mind, the neurodiverse and all animal lovers.