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

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An amazing journey into the hidden realm of natures 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 humanitys relationship with nature in the digital age. After learning about the unsuspected wonders of natures sounds, we will never see walks outdoors in the same way again.

Reviews

"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"
"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 sciencedoing, futurism, and accounts of Indigenous knowledge that is as interdisciplinary as the field itself."---Benjamin Gottseman, Science
"Bakker's well-researched stories showcase the mysterious communication styles of whales, elephants, turtles, corals, plants, 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 couldnt put [The Sounds of Life] down.a fascinating and forward-looking book"---Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today
"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 *
"In this beautifully written study, Karen Bakker. . . . compares digital technology that can reveal these sounds with the microscopes effect on vision. By extending our hearing, the technology allows us to encounter new soundscapes around the world and across the Tree of Life."---Andrew Robinson, Nature
"A fascinating account of a rapidly advancing understanding of the sonic world that binds life together on this planet."---Graeme Gourlay, DIVE Magazine
"The Sounds of Life is a charming and timely book, packed with stories of remarkable, eye-opening (and ear-opening) discoveries."---Hilary Lamb, Engineering and Technology
"Bakker is talking about the extension of our experience and our understanding and our sympathy in ways not possible before the advent of digital technology"---John Wilson, First Things
"Bakkers book is full of stories of wonder and curiosity about the world of sound that constantly surrounds humanity." * Mongabay *
"This is a fascinating and surprising look at how the natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. . . .a great read"---Lorraine Connelly, The Countryman
"Impeccably written, soundly researched, and utterly fascinating... Between and around the books 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 *

Author Bio

Karen Bakker is a professor at the University of British Columbia, and earned her PhD from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Annenberg Fellowship (Stanford University), a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Radcliffe Fellowship (Harvard University). An avid gardener and the mother of two daughters, she lives in Vancouver.