An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

I read this book on holiday and found it a fascinating tour of animal senses. There are helpful insghts all along the way.Most significantly - though it should be obvious - that no creature can sense the whole of the immense world of potential stimuli available because that would be far too much data for it to process. Instead, selective stimuli are chosen which enable the creature to live and communicte in its own particular environemnt. Second, that we still know so little about some of these remarkable senses - for example the ability of some creatures to detect the earth's magnetic field. We really don't know all that much!Not wanting to find fault, but this comment may help the author, I did find the book very long! I personally would have preferred a shorter book which omitted some of the secondary material - for e.g. the conversations / visits with the relevant scientists. All interesting, but for me, I needed to wade through it, so to speak.I have given this book 4 stars rather than 5 because - and this is a criticism of most sciency/biology books today - the author is often blinded (and sometimes confused) by the paradigm of evolutionary theory. Since everything must fit into this outdated paradigm, there is little recognition of the way these astonishing fully developed sense organs point much more reasonably to a Creator than some blind impersonal forces at work, and second, no attempt to compare the senses human beings have, as a whole, to those in the animal kingdom, to show how unique our collection is for conscious communicating life.Of course, if human beings are also,like the animals, just the product of blind forces, why would you compare them with animals? I realize this wasn't the author's aim, and this paradigm blindness runs across all the sciences today, with notable exceptions such as Stephen Meyer and philosphers such as Thomas Nagel.

I’d really looked forward to this book. Much lauded what with the unheard of facts about how animals can (and can’t) do. Few of us knew any of it really. Unfortunately, there is little here but a compilation of scientific research which frankly left me behind and, in truth, bored at times. The style is wrong for a start, at least for your average reader (like me) and I cannot recommend it if you’re that sort.

I think my original 4 stars was too generous.Formulaic second book prompted by the success of the excellent first.Too many descriptions of the characters and places he visited whilst researching, boring!Excessive use of unnecessary footnotes, I think to flesh out the page count.A classic example of an author trying to ride the "cash cow" while they're still relevant.Disappointed!

The author of this book has, by his research, penetrated deep into the realm of the animal world and,nodoubt, he enlightens the reader on how these creatures employ special bodily faculties by whichsensation is roused. Yes, it is so stark and realistic. According to my rationale, this book takes you, thereader, in-depth into another world which I recommend is very fascinating.

Haven’t got very far with it yet. It is a thick book and will take a while, with long chapters, but what I have read so far is very interesting.