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Sensational. A New Story of our Senses
A smorgasbord of the senses from a professor of animal behaviour: how they work, why they're there, and what they mean for both human and animal lives.
'A future classic of popular science' Mail on Sunday
'A dazzling account' Financial Times
'Absorbing, surprising and at times profound. After reading this, reality will never be quite the same' Dave Goulson
Our senses are how we navigate the world: they help us recognise the expressions on a loved one's face, know whether fruit is ripe by its smell, or even sense a storm approaching through a sudden drop in air pressure. It's now believed that we may have as many as fifty-three senses - and we're just beginning to expand our knowledge of this incredibly extensive palette.
Sensational is a mind-bending look at how our brains shape our experience of the world, marshalling the latest discoveries in science to explore the dazzling eyesight of the mantis shrimp, the rich inner lives of krill, and the baffling link between geomagnetic fields and canine bowel movements. Blending biology and neuroscience, Ward reveals that understanding our senses may hold the key to understanding the origins of human behaviour - from why we kiss to our varied music tastes.
'A future classic of popular science' Mail on Sunday
'A dazzling account' Financial Times
'Absorbing, surprising and at times profound. After reading this, reality will never be quite the same' Dave Goulson
Our senses are how we navigate the world: they help us recognise the expressions on a loved one's face, know whether fruit is ripe by its smell, or even sense a storm approaching through a sudden drop in air pressure. It's now believed that we may have as many as fifty-three senses - and we're just beginning to expand our knowledge of this incredibly extensive palette.
Sensational is a mind-bending look at how our brains shape our experience of the world, marshalling the latest discoveries in science to explore the dazzling eyesight of the mantis shrimp, the rich inner lives of krill, and the baffling link between geomagnetic fields and canine bowel movements. Blending biology and neuroscience, Ward reveals that understanding our senses may hold the key to understanding the origins of human behaviour - from why we kiss to our varied music tastes.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2023
81 people are currently reading
1726 people want to read
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April 17, 2023Update - Foetuses and taste "Foetuses develop a sense of taste at just four months after conception." Apparently they swallow more amniotic fluid when the mother has been eating something sweet than when she's been at the Brussels sprouts or other bitter food. Newborns drinking water adulterated with a sweet or umami flavour smile, those that got a sour or bitter flavour stick their tongues out and grimace.
This book is teaching me so much about the development of babies in the womb. I had never given a thought to when sight, sound, smell, touch and hearing would develop. I suppose if anything I thought sound (since a thump by a Buddhist monk on a huge Tibetan gong had awoken my slightly-overdue baby from his inaction in the womb), but if anything I thought those senses wouldn't be needed until after birth and wouldn't show themselves until then. That's illogical. So the book is interesting.
__________
<>Foetuses and recognition of face patterns When I am selling books meant for very young babies, either board books to chew on or books to read to them, I point out that pictures are often symbols and that our brains are wired to recognise a symbol. Specifically, the illustrations of children's faces look absolutely nothing like a real face, but even the very young recognise that it is a face, even a cartoon one. Recognising symbols is a precursor for reading.
So, I was interested to read in this book that in the third trimester of pregnancy, that babies, foetuses, respond to light patterns shone on their mother's bellies. If the pattern is an arrangement of dots and lines that approximates a face, it holds their attention for much longer than other patterns. I knew unborn babies could react to sound, but I had no idea they could see light patterns.
I knew about sound because my baby was at term and had stopped moving. I went to the hospital for an ultrasound and they said he was practicing breathing and sucking his thumb! So that afternoon I went to a Tibetan concert in Crystal Palace, London, and it started with a monk running up to and striking with a mallet a giant cymbal. My baby, jumped inside me! (And all was well).
This book is teaching me so much about the development of babies in the womb. I had never given a thought to when sight, sound, smell, touch and hearing would develop. I suppose if anything I thought sound (since a thump by a Buddhist monk on a huge Tibetan gong had awoken my slightly-overdue baby from his inaction in the womb), but if anything I thought those senses wouldn't be needed until after birth and wouldn't show themselves until then. That's illogical. So the book is interesting.
__________
<>Foetuses and recognition of face patterns When I am selling books meant for very young babies, either board books to chew on or books to read to them, I point out that pictures are often symbols and that our brains are wired to recognise a symbol. Specifically, the illustrations of children's faces look absolutely nothing like a real face, but even the very young recognise that it is a face, even a cartoon one. Recognising symbols is a precursor for reading.
So, I was interested to read in this book that in the third trimester of pregnancy, that babies, foetuses, respond to light patterns shone on their mother's bellies. If the pattern is an arrangement of dots and lines that approximates a face, it holds their attention for much longer than other patterns. I knew unborn babies could react to sound, but I had no idea they could see light patterns.
I knew about sound because my baby was at term and had stopped moving. I went to the hospital for an ultrasound and they said he was practicing breathing and sucking his thumb! So that afternoon I went to a Tibetan concert in Crystal Palace, London, and it started with a monk running up to and striking with a mallet a giant cymbal. My baby, jumped inside me! (And all was well).
April 1, 2023
Loved it! Sensory biology made fun.
When I read popular science books, I look not just for information (hey, had I wanted to read a dry boring textbook I would have read a dry boring textbook) but for how accessible it is, how interesting and how fun. Well, Ashley Ward got it right again. He hit all the points with his previous book, The Social Lives of Animals, and with this book he proved that he’s not a one-hit wonder.
Our five senses may seem pretty clear and simple on initial glance (and hey, like many I seem to default to visual metaphors all the time, prioritizing the visual like most of us seem to do), but once you delve deeper into it they are anything but. Sensation is one thing, perception is another. There’s endless integration and collaboration going on constantly, with fascinating interplay.
While I quite enjoyed the sections on vision, hearing and touch, the chapters on smell and taste were by far my favorite. I’ve never really appreciated the richness of experience coming from these, and when I lost both of these for a few weeks due to Covid I didn’t miss them at all — but Ward made me care a bit more about them, as well as give me many moments of hilarity and horror:
Humans can be quite disgusting and I’m never touching a perfume bottle ever again:
Even supposed wine connoisseurs can get fooled by a trick of adding food coloring to wine and involving preconceived expectations to replace supposed objectivity with subjectivity. When blindfolded, quite a few of us cannot identify coffee smell.
Ward keeps it compulsively readable, sticking with an easy-to-follow humorous conversational tone while delivering quite a bit of information which never gets overwhelming or dry. Easy 5 stars.
——————
Thanks to NetGalley and Basic Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
When I read popular science books, I look not just for information (hey, had I wanted to read a dry boring textbook I would have read a dry boring textbook) but for how accessible it is, how interesting and how fun. Well, Ashley Ward got it right again. He hit all the points with his previous book, The Social Lives of Animals, and with this book he proved that he’s not a one-hit wonder.
“The hákarl is delivered to me in chunks, sealed in a Kilner jar lest its terrible smell frighten the horses. My friends, who stubbornly refuse to participate, watch on as I timidly unfasten the container and retrieve a gobbet with the toothpick supplied. There’s no going back now. I pop the heinous morsel in my mouth. I don’t gag, though many first-timers do, apparently. A wave of flavour breaks over my tongue, a gustatory collage of particularly disreputable public toilets. There’s a note of elderly fish, swimming valiantly against the lavatorial flow. The texture is troubling, too, a kind of rubbery malevolence. To sum up the experience, I’d probably go with ‘vulcanised litter tray’.”
Our five senses may seem pretty clear and simple on initial glance (and hey, like many I seem to default to visual metaphors all the time, prioritizing the visual like most of us seem to do), but once you delve deeper into it they are anything but. Sensation is one thing, perception is another. There’s endless integration and collaboration going on constantly, with fascinating interplay.
“We also have taste receptors sprinkled around the body in places such as the liver, the brain and even the testes. This latter revelation, from a paper published in 2013, gave rise to a fad among young men to dangle their balls in such things as soy sauce, with some even claiming to have registered a savoury hit. The thing is, though taste receptors may be found in such extraordinary places, they’re not organised into taste buds and nor are they wired to the brain in quite the same way as the receptors in our mouths, so they don’t deliver the experience of flavour. The net result is that the participants exposed themselves not only to condiment-covered gonads but to accusations of wishful thinking.”
While I quite enjoyed the sections on vision, hearing and touch, the chapters on smell and taste were by far my favorite. I’ve never really appreciated the richness of experience coming from these, and when I lost both of these for a few weeks due to Covid I didn’t miss them at all — but Ward made me care a bit more about them, as well as give me many moments of hilarity and horror:
“For example, one of those chemicals that makes up the smell of coffee, indole, can cause problems for coffee-loving mums-to-be. To most people, indole has the odour of bad breath or faeces. In the melee of hundreds of different aromas in coffee, hardly anyone notices it. When some women become pregnant, indole’s shitty odour comes to the fore and ruins the whole experience.”
Humans can be quite disgusting and I’m never touching a perfume bottle ever again:
“As well as things like musk and castoreum from these animals, perfumes often contain a hint of urinary fragrance. Horrible as it may sound, our noses seem to like it.”
Even supposed wine connoisseurs can get fooled by a trick of adding food coloring to wine and involving preconceived expectations to replace supposed objectivity with subjectivity. When blindfolded, quite a few of us cannot identify coffee smell.
“There are many answers to the question of how many senses we have. It’s more than five, perhaps more than fifty. I’d argue that we learn little from the dry arithmetic process of accounting the senses. The important thing is to understand that the end result, perception – our overall sensory experience – is an alloy, an extraordinary conjoining and melding of the separate senses.”
Ward keeps it compulsively readable, sticking with an easy-to-follow humorous conversational tone while delivering quite a bit of information which never gets overwhelming or dry. Easy 5 stars.
——————
Thanks to NetGalley and Basic Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
May 31, 2023
Sensational by Ashley Ward takes the reader through each of our five senses in a fascinating and sometimes humorous way. Here, I’ll highlight some of the items I found most interesting.
Animal species view the world quite differently. For example, birds have 4 types of colour receptors to our three. So, when we see a starling it’s a dull, mottled brown – but to another starling it’s a lively mix of purples, green and blues. Reindeer can see in the UV range – this makes lichen stand out in the tundra and on it goes.
Vision is often voted the most important sense. In fact, this illustrated anatomically – as vision receptors number around 200 million and consumes most of the brain’s processing resources – in fact more than the rest of the senses combined.
Do you know the most hated sounds for humans isn’t the sound of a barking dog, a child screaming, a dentist’s drill or nails screeching down a blackboard ?– the most frequent winner in studies is the sound of someone vomiting. Uuuuurrrgghh – I can’t argue with that.
Music is discussed, and our appreciation of it.
There’s a magical sense not only of the beauty of music but also in the sense of bringing people together
The author illustrates this with the following version of “Ode to Joy”. The people watching and listening are enthralled. It's great to see.
Please check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxLbm... it’s wonderful and if you are anything like me you’ll have a tear in your eye and the hairs on the back of your neck will stand up (particularly if you’ve got your headphones cranked!!)
Smell - the sense I found the most interesting
This chapter I found to be the most fascinating.
We smell by odour chemicals in the air getting stuck in the sticky mucous of our nasal passages, and transported to receptors at the top (7cm in) of our nasal cavity. Here, there’s a postage sized area of olfactory receptors – around 800 of them. These receptors then code information to the pea-sized olfactory bulbs and then onto the brain for processing. All this takes a fifth of a second – aren’t we super clever?
There is still so little we know about smell – such as what molecular structures result in a certain smell. Smell is very difficult to measure. Imagine identifying the limitless combinations of molecules responsible for the many, many different smells we experience.
Surveys repeatedly show (in Western countries) that smell is the sense we would be most prepared to lose – I think I would concur with that. It’s worth noting that humans perform very poorly in smelling studies – for example, studies show that one half of subjects were able to identify the smell of an orange, a fifth of us identified coffee and very rarely cheese was identified by odour alone. I think that’s surprising.
Women have us blokes beaten in the smelling stakes. The author even said our (men, us, me) often can’t smell our own body odour, whereas the women in our lives, using their stellar olfactory senses (up to 50% more neurons) can smell us a mile away. Personally, I think that’s unfair, and I have little time for show-offs. Also, heterosexual women judge men on their smell!! We are set up to fail dammit!!
Men tend to have a predominance of Corynebacterium in their normal skin flora – which produce a cheesier flagrance whereas women’s armpits seem to favour Staphylococcus , lending the hint of onion to their bouquet. Love it!!!
The author also overs touch and taste in easy-to-understand detail and humour leading into the last two chapters where he discusses how our senses work together, as a team. Sometimes, this can be disrupted in a condition called synaesthesia. This is where an individual may shake someone’s hand, and in addition to sensing touch, they might taste lemons. This discussion was fascinating, as was the last chapter, which discussed perception. This last chapter ties everything together. There are individual differences on how we perceive and interpret certain stimuli – is my red the same as yours, or my description of a wine’s bouquet as the inviting smell of iron filings the same as yours? Perception was mentioned repeatedly throughout this book and is obviously key to how we experience our world and those in it.
This book is terrific. The author knows his stuff – in some places, the information he provides is dense, but it moves on when one has just had enough. The author is also funny – and I appreciate that (always).
4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars - I’d better have a shower now.
Animal species view the world quite differently. For example, birds have 4 types of colour receptors to our three. So, when we see a starling it’s a dull, mottled brown – but to another starling it’s a lively mix of purples, green and blues. Reindeer can see in the UV range – this makes lichen stand out in the tundra and on it goes.
Vision is often voted the most important sense. In fact, this illustrated anatomically – as vision receptors number around 200 million and consumes most of the brain’s processing resources – in fact more than the rest of the senses combined.
Do you know the most hated sounds for humans isn’t the sound of a barking dog, a child screaming, a dentist’s drill or nails screeching down a blackboard ?– the most frequent winner in studies is the sound of someone vomiting. Uuuuurrrgghh – I can’t argue with that.
Music is discussed, and our appreciation of it.
There’s a magical sense not only of the beauty of music but also in the sense of bringing people together
The author illustrates this with the following version of “Ode to Joy”. The people watching and listening are enthralled. It's great to see.
Please check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxLbm... it’s wonderful and if you are anything like me you’ll have a tear in your eye and the hairs on the back of your neck will stand up (particularly if you’ve got your headphones cranked!!)
Smell - the sense I found the most interesting
This chapter I found to be the most fascinating.
We smell by odour chemicals in the air getting stuck in the sticky mucous of our nasal passages, and transported to receptors at the top (7cm in) of our nasal cavity. Here, there’s a postage sized area of olfactory receptors – around 800 of them. These receptors then code information to the pea-sized olfactory bulbs and then onto the brain for processing. All this takes a fifth of a second – aren’t we super clever?
There is still so little we know about smell – such as what molecular structures result in a certain smell. Smell is very difficult to measure. Imagine identifying the limitless combinations of molecules responsible for the many, many different smells we experience.
Surveys repeatedly show (in Western countries) that smell is the sense we would be most prepared to lose – I think I would concur with that. It’s worth noting that humans perform very poorly in smelling studies – for example, studies show that one half of subjects were able to identify the smell of an orange, a fifth of us identified coffee and very rarely cheese was identified by odour alone. I think that’s surprising.
Women have us blokes beaten in the smelling stakes. The author even said our (men, us, me) often can’t smell our own body odour, whereas the women in our lives, using their stellar olfactory senses (up to 50% more neurons) can smell us a mile away. Personally, I think that’s unfair, and I have little time for show-offs. Also, heterosexual women judge men on their smell!! We are set up to fail dammit!!
Men tend to have a predominance of Corynebacterium in their normal skin flora – which produce a cheesier flagrance whereas women’s armpits seem to favour Staphylococcus , lending the hint of onion to their bouquet. Love it!!!
The author also overs touch and taste in easy-to-understand detail and humour leading into the last two chapters where he discusses how our senses work together, as a team. Sometimes, this can be disrupted in a condition called synaesthesia. This is where an individual may shake someone’s hand, and in addition to sensing touch, they might taste lemons. This discussion was fascinating, as was the last chapter, which discussed perception. This last chapter ties everything together. There are individual differences on how we perceive and interpret certain stimuli – is my red the same as yours, or my description of a wine’s bouquet as the inviting smell of iron filings the same as yours? Perception was mentioned repeatedly throughout this book and is obviously key to how we experience our world and those in it.
This book is terrific. The author knows his stuff – in some places, the information he provides is dense, but it moves on when one has just had enough. The author is also funny – and I appreciate that (always).
4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars - I’d better have a shower now.
January 29, 2023
Fascinating overview of sensory biology! Ward divides the book by each of the five senses, but then describes how all of the senses are intricately integrated during the complicated process of perception.
Naturally, there are some gender differences when it comes to perception, with men having the evolutionary advantage for visual acuity and motion sensitivity, while women have better color discrimination. Women also have 50% more neurons in olfactory processing brain regions, making them far more sensitive to scents. The theory is that this evolved as a way to protect fetuses; a strong sense of smell allows (aka, pretty much forces) a mother to avoid things that give off a strong odor that could hurt the developing fetus. The reproductive hormones involved also give women of reproductive age a better sensitivity for taste compared to age-matched males.
I also thought the cross-culture comparisons on sense perception to be really interesting as well. Due to changes of lifestyle per culture, Westerners have a disadvantage when it comes to scent ability. For example, only one in four US adults were able to correctly identify the smell of coffee on a blind scent test. The variety of diets cross-culturally also explains the differences for taste, with 1 out of 4 Caucasian subjects being classified as "non-tasters" while East Asian and Afro-Caribbean samples performed astronomically better.
I always thought that humans have weaker perception than many mammals, but it turns out cats are legally blind by human standards! Dogs perform better, but worse than humans, and birds' eyesight puts the rest of the animal kingdom to shame. When it comes to taste, humans actually have more than 10x the amount of taste buds compared to dogs, which could explain why dogs have no issue eating poop. And while humans can't exactly replace TSA dogs when it comes to sniffing, we have a better sense of smell than I ever imagined. Ward described how study subjects were able to differentiate between the smell of fear rather than from exercise just by sniffing sweaty t-shirts! Lastly, humans, similar to other animals, seem to have a subconscious magnetic-driven perception of cardinal directions. Some humans have a stronger, subconscious brain activation to the change in magnetic fields, which could explain why some people are just more navigationally-skilled then others. These sections of the book are not only little fun facts, but sparked many conversations!
Sometimes this integration leads to inaccurate perception, and Ward provides amusing and thought-provoking examples of these situations. For example, just by dying white wine red, even experienced wine connoisseurs ended up mistakenly (but confidently) mislabeling it. Further studies revealed that background lighting and music also have a strong effect on how we perceive the flavor notes in wine; all to suggest that our perception is a conglomeration of multiple inputs of information in the setting; a sensory crosstalk, as Ward put it.
The only drawback of the writing style was the extremely long paragraph formatting at times, some of them a full page long. I felt like this would have made reading a bit smoother if they were reorganized, but that's minor. The book overall was excellent and very intriguing, highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and Basic Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy before publication.
"The fact remains that we experience our surroundings in very different ways, and this shapes not only what we perceive, but how we relate to the world."
Naturally, there are some gender differences when it comes to perception, with men having the evolutionary advantage for visual acuity and motion sensitivity, while women have better color discrimination. Women also have 50% more neurons in olfactory processing brain regions, making them far more sensitive to scents. The theory is that this evolved as a way to protect fetuses; a strong sense of smell allows (aka, pretty much forces) a mother to avoid things that give off a strong odor that could hurt the developing fetus. The reproductive hormones involved also give women of reproductive age a better sensitivity for taste compared to age-matched males.
I also thought the cross-culture comparisons on sense perception to be really interesting as well. Due to changes of lifestyle per culture, Westerners have a disadvantage when it comes to scent ability. For example, only one in four US adults were able to correctly identify the smell of coffee on a blind scent test. The variety of diets cross-culturally also explains the differences for taste, with 1 out of 4 Caucasian subjects being classified as "non-tasters" while East Asian and Afro-Caribbean samples performed astronomically better.
I always thought that humans have weaker perception than many mammals, but it turns out cats are legally blind by human standards! Dogs perform better, but worse than humans, and birds' eyesight puts the rest of the animal kingdom to shame. When it comes to taste, humans actually have more than 10x the amount of taste buds compared to dogs, which could explain why dogs have no issue eating poop. And while humans can't exactly replace TSA dogs when it comes to sniffing, we have a better sense of smell than I ever imagined. Ward described how study subjects were able to differentiate between the smell of fear rather than from exercise just by sniffing sweaty t-shirts! Lastly, humans, similar to other animals, seem to have a subconscious magnetic-driven perception of cardinal directions. Some humans have a stronger, subconscious brain activation to the change in magnetic fields, which could explain why some people are just more navigationally-skilled then others. These sections of the book are not only little fun facts, but sparked many conversations!
Sometimes this integration leads to inaccurate perception, and Ward provides amusing and thought-provoking examples of these situations. For example, just by dying white wine red, even experienced wine connoisseurs ended up mistakenly (but confidently) mislabeling it. Further studies revealed that background lighting and music also have a strong effect on how we perceive the flavor notes in wine; all to suggest that our perception is a conglomeration of multiple inputs of information in the setting; a sensory crosstalk, as Ward put it.
The only drawback of the writing style was the extremely long paragraph formatting at times, some of them a full page long. I felt like this would have made reading a bit smoother if they were reorganized, but that's minor. The book overall was excellent and very intriguing, highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and Basic Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy before publication.
"The fact remains that we experience our surroundings in very different ways, and this shapes not only what we perceive, but how we relate to the world."
March 24, 2023
Fantastic read detailing the science behind the five major human senses. While primarily focused on humans he integrates other animal research on senses as well. Learned so many interesting facts about out senses.
Want to read
March 28, 2023TBR based on Nataliya's 5-star review:
"Loved it! Sensory biology made fun.
When I read popular science books, I look not just for information (hey, had I wanted to read a dry boring textbook I would have read a dry boring textbook) but for how accessible it is, how interesting and how fun. Well, Ashley Ward got it right again. He hit all the points with his previous book, The Social Lives of Animals, and with this book he proved that he’s not a one-hit wonder. ..."
I liked that one, too. For when the library gats copies.
"Loved it! Sensory biology made fun.
When I read popular science books, I look not just for information (hey, had I wanted to read a dry boring textbook I would have read a dry boring textbook) but for how accessible it is, how interesting and how fun. Well, Ashley Ward got it right again. He hit all the points with his previous book, The Social Lives of Animals, and with this book he proved that he’s not a one-hit wonder. ..."
I liked that one, too. For when the library gats copies.
December 14, 2025
It's widely accepted that we have 5 senses: vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch but according to Ashley Ward, we might have as many as 53 senses. Ashley Ward is a Biologist in Sydney specialising in the field of animal behaviour and in Sensational - A New Story of Our Senses he delves into disciplines as diverse as psychology, ecology, medicine, economics and engineering to expound on the senses.
Listening to the audiobook narrated by David Morley Hale, the author addresses each of the primary 5 senses in their own sections. He also points out many other senses we already know about but may not have considered, like the sense of time, the sense of direction and the sense of balance or proprioception.
One of the most interesting facts I learned was that plants register vibrations and also make sounds. You might remember the scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when Professor Sprout delivers a lesson on how to safely repot a mandrake, noting that the screams of the plant's roots can be fatal to those who hear them. Well, according to the author:
"It'd be a long stretch to say that plants scream, but when they're stressed or damaged, plants emit high ultra sonic sounds and they do this at a volume that's roughly the equivalent of our conversation, about 65 decibels." Chapter 6
Fascinating! But also isn't that just a tad creepy? Next time I'm trimming the dead ends from the leaves of my peace lily I'll be worried it's emitting sounds of distress. I wonder if they can also produce sounds of relief when watered, or perhaps when their dead ends are trimmed. Let's go with that.
I didn't know humans can distinguish over a trillion different smells and that women have a better sense of smell than men. Sensational by Ashley Ward is full of information like this and is recommended for readers with a serious interest in science, biology and anatomy.
Listening to the audiobook narrated by David Morley Hale, the author addresses each of the primary 5 senses in their own sections. He also points out many other senses we already know about but may not have considered, like the sense of time, the sense of direction and the sense of balance or proprioception.
One of the most interesting facts I learned was that plants register vibrations and also make sounds. You might remember the scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when Professor Sprout delivers a lesson on how to safely repot a mandrake, noting that the screams of the plant's roots can be fatal to those who hear them. Well, according to the author:
"It'd be a long stretch to say that plants scream, but when they're stressed or damaged, plants emit high ultra sonic sounds and they do this at a volume that's roughly the equivalent of our conversation, about 65 decibels." Chapter 6
Fascinating! But also isn't that just a tad creepy? Next time I'm trimming the dead ends from the leaves of my peace lily I'll be worried it's emitting sounds of distress. I wonder if they can also produce sounds of relief when watered, or perhaps when their dead ends are trimmed. Let's go with that.
I didn't know humans can distinguish over a trillion different smells and that women have a better sense of smell than men. Sensational by Ashley Ward is full of information like this and is recommended for readers with a serious interest in science, biology and anatomy.
September 14, 2024
Interesting, lots of good examples, some with a humorous bent. This is the senses, not just the 5 we're used to hearing about, mostly from an evolutional standpoint. The author read the audiobook, and sometimes I got distracted by his accent, but it was a decent science topic.
April 10, 2023
This was pretty great - first goes through each of the traditional senses and then explores less "usual" ones and how they all relate to one another. LOTS of interesting bits of information in here, including lots that I had never heard before.
4.5
4.5
September 29, 2023
I don’t usually deal well with deluges of facts, but I thought this book was fascinating and well-written. Recommended.
May 20, 2023
Sensational: A new story of our senses by Uni. of Sydney professor Ashley Ward is an in-depth tour of our 5 sensory modalities. It is fundamentally biological with emphasis on evolution, and favorably fulfills Ward’s not insubstantial claim that ‘I immersed myself in research from disciplines as diverse as psychology, ecology, medicine, economics and even engineering and I delved into the question of how thoughts, emotions and culture shape, and are shaped by, our sensory world.’ If this sounds a bit heavy going the book is not, for it is clearly written and organized (including a not overwhelming reference list) with an eye to the modestly educated and not necessarily science-preferred reader. It is humorous too, as well as accessible, with tales of quirky — some ingenious — lab experiments, to personal encounters with the extraordinary: ‘A few years ago, while snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, I saw a creature peering at me from the safety of its burrow. I was about the size of a banana and fronted with a colorful mass of sophisticated, sensory hardware. Though it is recognizably a crustacean, its peculiar appearance and vivid livery suggest that one of its grandparents could conceivably have been some kind of mythical Chinese dragon….’ Ward is one of those fortunate writers who can convey the complex simply; he follows Einstein’s advice to those who specialize: to ‘make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.’
And if you want to know more about what’s at the cutting edge of 21st c. thinking about our senses, you might want to consider with professor Ward (in the penultimate chapter of Sensational) those ‘senses’ we possess that seem to have no neurological apparatus, rather, they seem to be just a facility in our brain: senses such as our sense of time, our sense of direction, our sense of balance and proprioception and interoceptive awareness; and animals’ sense of imminent natural disaster — e.g. from tsunamis, earthquakes and freak weather events, — and their sense of polarity along the Earth’s geomagnetic field. ‘An exploration of these unfamiliar senses’ says Ward, ‘along with those that we possess yet underutilize, give us a perspective far greater than that which a rigid adherence to the five-sense orthodoxy ever could.’
And if you want to know more about what’s at the cutting edge of 21st c. thinking about our senses, you might want to consider with professor Ward (in the penultimate chapter of Sensational) those ‘senses’ we possess that seem to have no neurological apparatus, rather, they seem to be just a facility in our brain: senses such as our sense of time, our sense of direction, our sense of balance and proprioception and interoceptive awareness; and animals’ sense of imminent natural disaster — e.g. from tsunamis, earthquakes and freak weather events, — and their sense of polarity along the Earth’s geomagnetic field. ‘An exploration of these unfamiliar senses’ says Ward, ‘along with those that we possess yet underutilize, give us a perspective far greater than that which a rigid adherence to the five-sense orthodoxy ever could.’
January 3, 2023
I generally don’t read popular science for the laughs; I’m there for well-explained content, hopefully with a conversational tone. But this book delivers it all; the content, the style and the humor that makes for great science writing. Written in a conversational tone with minimal use of jargon, this book gave me an excellent, well-explained tour of the senses. The book is well-paced and there is never a dull moment, making it hard to put the book down. Thank you to Netgalley and Basic Books for the digital review copy.
November 9, 2024
I love a good science book!
Read after some sensory fiction, “The Smell of Other People’s Houses” and “The Scent Keeper”
Ward has me curious for more science! I discovered so many new things, thanks to the biologist author. It was narrated by Aussie sounding, voice actor David Morley Hale, and twelve hours flew by.
As one of the 50 percent, who lost their sense of smell and taste for about a month after I got COVID, I appreciate my senses so much more.
WTR next? Another Ward? Darwin?
Read after some sensory fiction, “The Smell of Other People’s Houses” and “The Scent Keeper”
Ward has me curious for more science! I discovered so many new things, thanks to the biologist author. It was narrated by Aussie sounding, voice actor David Morley Hale, and twelve hours flew by.
As one of the 50 percent, who lost their sense of smell and taste for about a month after I got COVID, I appreciate my senses so much more.
WTR next? Another Ward? Darwin?
February 8, 2023
A well written, fascinating book about the senses. Thoroughly engaging throughout. Thought provoking.
March 24, 2023
Thought provoking but confirmed much of what I already knew from other research more a coffee table book than a serious academic one
August 9, 2024
I liked this and am contemplating an eventual re-listen. For me, it was akin to Immune or How Emotions Are Made. It’s a very well-put-together description of the topic at hand. By the end, the book even covers synesthesia and senses beyond the big five.
- What the Eye Sees
- Hear, Hear!
- Scents and Sensibility
- Accounting for Taste
- Skin Sense
- The Kitchen Drawer of the Senses
- The Weave of Perception
The only thing that went differently than expected was the narrator. Based on the name Ashley, I thought it would be a female narrator, but no. I've been misled by that name before. This doesn't detract from the five stars, as it was very interesting. There were some surprising facts sprinkled here and there, and I should have bookmarked the audiobook at those points because I forgot them. But the depth was surprising. The book covers how the senses evolved, differences compared to animals, and some great examples like the mantis shrimp, which I knew about from The Oatmeal.
There was also a section where you can try a few touch experiments on yourself, tricking your brain into creating sensations. I want to try those. The book discusses how our taste and smell are connected, pheromones, perfumers, the colors we see, how the ear works and how it evolved, the function of hairy vs. non-hairy skin, tricking sommeliers with dyed wine, and more.
I don’t understand why this book isn’t more popular; I thought it would be a bestseller or something. I just randomly stumbled upon it. There doesn’t need to be a better resource covering the senses—this one has it all. It’s difficult to nitpick what I would have written differently, if anything. If you like "how we work" type of books with a hint of various other sciences (a little bit of everything), this one is for you. It’s never boring.
- What the Eye Sees
- Hear, Hear!
- Scents and Sensibility
- Accounting for Taste
- Skin Sense
- The Kitchen Drawer of the Senses
- The Weave of Perception
The only thing that went differently than expected was the narrator. Based on the name Ashley, I thought it would be a female narrator, but no. I've been misled by that name before. This doesn't detract from the five stars, as it was very interesting. There were some surprising facts sprinkled here and there, and I should have bookmarked the audiobook at those points because I forgot them. But the depth was surprising. The book covers how the senses evolved, differences compared to animals, and some great examples like the mantis shrimp, which I knew about from The Oatmeal.
There was also a section where you can try a few touch experiments on yourself, tricking your brain into creating sensations. I want to try those. The book discusses how our taste and smell are connected, pheromones, perfumers, the colors we see, how the ear works and how it evolved, the function of hairy vs. non-hairy skin, tricking sommeliers with dyed wine, and more.
I don’t understand why this book isn’t more popular; I thought it would be a bestseller or something. I just randomly stumbled upon it. There doesn’t need to be a better resource covering the senses—this one has it all. It’s difficult to nitpick what I would have written differently, if anything. If you like "how we work" type of books with a hint of various other sciences (a little bit of everything), this one is for you. It’s never boring.
December 22, 2025
So many fun facts in here. A lil scientific but not overwhelmingly technical. I want to learn more biology!! One cool thing I’ll remember is that when people raise their hands to their face in shock (🫢) it could be because we want to smell ourselves, which is supposed to reassure us. Also:
“In the US, almost three quarters of wrongful imprisonments that are ultimately overturned on the basis of new evidence were originally convicted primarily on the basis of inaccurate eyewitness accounts.”
“Neural connections are being built and strengthened to provide a framework for understanding the outside world. In time, prior experience and expectations, as well as emotion, will be used to temper the raw input from the senses. The result, an individual’s perception will be unique, idiosyncratic and subjective. It won’t mirror the outside world, but will represent the brain’s best guess and it’ll be an imperfect representation.”
Crazy how everyone has a totally unique perception of the world around them but I was blessed with the singularly best and most accurate and always right one
“In the US, almost three quarters of wrongful imprisonments that are ultimately overturned on the basis of new evidence were originally convicted primarily on the basis of inaccurate eyewitness accounts.”
“Neural connections are being built and strengthened to provide a framework for understanding the outside world. In time, prior experience and expectations, as well as emotion, will be used to temper the raw input from the senses. The result, an individual’s perception will be unique, idiosyncratic and subjective. It won’t mirror the outside world, but will represent the brain’s best guess and it’ll be an imperfect representation.”
Crazy how everyone has a totally unique perception of the world around them but I was blessed with the singularly best and most accurate and always right one
May 28, 2023
Deep dive into the 5 major senses - aka receptors - that help humans engage with and navigate the physical world. Discussion as well of the many additional senses we possess, ones less commonly considered but incredibly important nonetheless, especially for regulating our internal body processes.
Author touches on some other cool things that animals sense and respond to but humans cannot, such as electromagnetic fields and shifts in the earth’s tectonic plates. (Pro tip: if you’re ever at the beach or near a volcano and wildlife starts freaking out and heads for shelter, you’d be well advised to do the same as a tsunami or other catastrophic natural event is imminent.)
Really enjoyed this one as it covers a lot of neurological medical ground which is a topic I find fascinating. Also, my sixth sense knows there are many things happening around us humans that we simply lack the proper receptors to understand fully, but it’s fun to try and connect with them nonetheless.
Author touches on some other cool things that animals sense and respond to but humans cannot, such as electromagnetic fields and shifts in the earth’s tectonic plates. (Pro tip: if you’re ever at the beach or near a volcano and wildlife starts freaking out and heads for shelter, you’d be well advised to do the same as a tsunami or other catastrophic natural event is imminent.)
Really enjoyed this one as it covers a lot of neurological medical ground which is a topic I find fascinating. Also, my sixth sense knows there are many things happening around us humans that we simply lack the proper receptors to understand fully, but it’s fun to try and connect with them nonetheless.
February 16, 2025
If you’re looking for a book that combines a wealth of information with an accessible narrative, “Where We Meet The World” by Ashley Ward is a good choice. While it doesn’t delve into exhaustive academic detail—the author clarifies in the introduction that he won’t cover highly specialized topics like advanced biochemistry or cellular biology—this approach enhances its appeal. It’s particularly suited for readers who are expecting an easy and interesting reading.
What truly stands out in this work is Ward’s ability to present concrete examples and comprehensible explanations that provoke thought and invite discussion. Each subject is addressed in a manner that encourages even non-experts to delve deeper into the fascinating realm of sensory biology.
Moreover, the book offers a refreshed perspective on how we perceive the world through our senses, highlighting that sensory experiences are unique to each individual. I found great the approach to learn about the existence of additional senses beyond the traditionally recognized five, which are essential to our interaction with the environment.
In summary, “Where We Meet The World” is an engaging and accessible read.
March 31, 2024
The central message - that the senses are heavily interdependent and far more flexible than commonly thought - is fascinating, and the large number of examples are all very interesting. However, everything is presented very haphazardly, constantly jumping from one example to the next without much coherence. As a whole, it is more a heap of anecdotes to pique interest than a well crafted narrative to present contemporary research or understanding of the senses.
May 21, 2023
A fascinating and informative book about how we perceive the world. I read (and loved) Ed Yong’s “An Immense World” last year and I worried there would be a lot of overlap, but this book focuses on human senses and works as an excellent comparison piece. It overflows with interesting research and entertaining anecdotes (an encounter with a diving beetle larva is particularly amusing).
November 20, 2025
Now I have a greater appreciation for my senses, especially the undervalued ones such as touch and smell, and a deeper understanding of the role of our brain plays in synthesizing these senses and interpreting how we feel. I also like the author’s personal anecdotes (he’s quite fun and real, different from the stereotype of a biologist), and he composes prose vividly and beautifully
November 3, 2024
Lots of fun facts but so boring
November 9, 2024
Very informative. Well written. Kept me engrossed.
February 16, 2025
Non-Fiction>Science, Anatomy, Neurology
This book was FANTASTIC! I am such a fan of anything that sheds light on human behavior, so this was already going to be a no-brainer-read for me, but it was even more interesting and informative than expected.
We look at: taste, touch, smell, hearing, vision, of course. We also look at other senses that we and other earthlings have.
I listened to this one and thoroughly enjoyed my trip. I will certainly revisit this title in the future and look forward to taking notes while I read it 'for real' instead of audio.
"It is said that every time you recall a memory you are remembering the last time you remembered it."
This book was FANTASTIC! I am such a fan of anything that sheds light on human behavior, so this was already going to be a no-brainer-read for me, but it was even more interesting and informative than expected.
We look at: taste, touch, smell, hearing, vision, of course. We also look at other senses that we and other earthlings have.
I listened to this one and thoroughly enjoyed my trip. I will certainly revisit this title in the future and look forward to taking notes while I read it 'for real' instead of audio.
"It is said that every time you recall a memory you are remembering the last time you remembered it."
January 4, 2025
Sensational was an excellent primer into the perception. I took a class on the subject in college and work in the field, and even with these priors I still felt like I learned something. My previous experience with perception has been primarily concerned with vision, so I appreciated the attention to the other senses. The chapter on taste was my favorite, and enjoyed learning about how the sensation of taste is a composite of almost all our sense. I also really enjoyed learning about perception of senses beyond the typical human gamut (mantis shrimp mono depth, polarized light, magno and electroreception).
Ward does and excellent job combining scientific rigor with historical narrative and engaging anecdotes to create an exemplary primer on the field of perception.
Ward does and excellent job combining scientific rigor with historical narrative and engaging anecdotes to create an exemplary primer on the field of perception.
May 14, 2023
Completely delightful tour of what we know about the senses - sight, smell, sound, taste, touch, where we excel, where our experience is far less nuanced than that of other species.
August 11, 2023
Sensational
October 25, 2024
True godsend.
June 22, 2024
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A SENSATIONAL BOOK ABOUT OUR SENSES
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"My challenge (with respect to this book] was not only to understand the senses but to place them in the context of our lives and it's [this] challenge that has inspired me to write this book.
While I don't neglect the underlying biology, my goal is to examine our senses [generally]. For this reason, I leave the more detailed biochemistry, molecular and cell biology to other, more specialist books.
Instead, I examine not only how we sense, but why. I'll delve into the fascinating questions of how we each differ in our sensory experiences and where these diffferences emerge from. I explore how our senses have shaped humankind and I look to the future, to predict how the senses will influence what is to come."
The above [in italics] comes from this fascinating book by Ashley Ward. He is a professor of biology at the University of Sydney (in Australia) as well as director at this university's Animal Behavior Lab.
Quite honestly, I thought this book was going to be boring. However, it is anything but. It is a well-written, thoroughly engaging throughout, as well as thought-provoking.
Ward draws on evolutionary theory, neurology, and psychology to explore the development and functioning of senses in humans, and to a lesser extent, in animals and even plants.
Finally, this book is arranged such that a chapter is dedicated to each of our five primary senses, then there is a chapter outlining underappreciated but crucial senses. The final chapter deals with sensory perception. That is, "how our brains weave the miraculous tapestry of perception from a medley of sensory inputs."
In conclusion, after reading this book, I guarantee you'll agree that it is our senses that make life worth living!!
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(2023; introduction; 7 chapters; afterword (conclusion); main narrative 280 pages; selected references; acknowledgments; index; about the author)
XXXXX
A SENSATIONAL BOOK ABOUT OUR SENSES
XXXXX
"My challenge (with respect to this book] was not only to understand the senses but to place them in the context of our lives and it's [this] challenge that has inspired me to write this book.
While I don't neglect the underlying biology, my goal is to examine our senses [generally]. For this reason, I leave the more detailed biochemistry, molecular and cell biology to other, more specialist books.
Instead, I examine not only how we sense, but why. I'll delve into the fascinating questions of how we each differ in our sensory experiences and where these diffferences emerge from. I explore how our senses have shaped humankind and I look to the future, to predict how the senses will influence what is to come."
The above [in italics] comes from this fascinating book by Ashley Ward. He is a professor of biology at the University of Sydney (in Australia) as well as director at this university's Animal Behavior Lab.
Quite honestly, I thought this book was going to be boring. However, it is anything but. It is a well-written, thoroughly engaging throughout, as well as thought-provoking.
Ward draws on evolutionary theory, neurology, and psychology to explore the development and functioning of senses in humans, and to a lesser extent, in animals and even plants.
Finally, this book is arranged such that a chapter is dedicated to each of our five primary senses, then there is a chapter outlining underappreciated but crucial senses. The final chapter deals with sensory perception. That is, "how our brains weave the miraculous tapestry of perception from a medley of sensory inputs."
In conclusion, after reading this book, I guarantee you'll agree that it is our senses that make life worth living!!
XXXXX
(2023; introduction; 7 chapters; afterword (conclusion); main narrative 280 pages; selected references; acknowledgments; index; about the author)
XXXXX
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