Ed Yong
speaker
354 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Sep 2025
last heard 25 Sep
Ed Yong’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I did get hit by a mantis shrimp, which has the most powerful punch in nature.
This was a very, very small mantis shrimp, and it still hurt.
Hello.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Every creature has its own particular ways of sensing the world, its own set of sights and sounds and smells and textures that it has access to.
So we're all trapped in our own little sensory bubbles.
And there is a wonderful word for such a bubble.
That word is umwelt.
It's just German for environment, but it has a very special meaning in this context.
And it's one of my favorite ideas in all of biology because it tells us that no matter where we are and no matter which kind of living thing we are, we really are only experiencing a tiny fraction of all there is to experience.
Yeah, I agree.
I think it means that there's so much wonder to be had everywhere.
If you dive into water, depending on the part of the world you're in, you might be surrounded by the electric fields generated by fish that can make their own electricity.
You'll be surrounded by turbulent currents that are left behind by swimming animals that you won't be able to feel.
you'll be suffused by the magnetic field of the earth itself, which you won't be able to detect.
There's all of this stuff, all these signals around us that we don't perceive and that other animals do.
Electric fish can detect each other's signals.
Seals can detect the tracks left behind by swimming fish.
Sea turtles can detect the magnetic field of the earth itself.
Yeah, it's actually all right.
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