The Sounds of Life

October 3, 2022
Bakker (Water Teachings), director of the University of British Columbia’s Program on Water Governance, takes stock of the technology that’s being developed to help humans “listen to nonhumans in powerful ways.” Such innovations are “reviving our connection to the natural world,” Bakker writes: scientists have discovered that turtles use “an underwater communication system with a repertoire of complex sound”; are using algorithms to “talk to plants”; have discerned that fish make noises (one of the “first documented instances of fish noise” was thanks to a mic wrapped in a condom); and are developing “bee-imitating robots” that can communicate with honeybees. Bakker is optimistic that such technological developments will enhance “our ability to monitor organisms and ecosystems and detect environmental change,” and he maintains an inspiring perspective on what scientists are discovering in the face of humans’ limited sensory capacities: “Although these calls are some of the loudest ever recorded in the animal kingdom, they are inaudible to us,” the author writes of echolocation. “Even the loudest ultrasonic sound blown directly into our ears would feel like nothing more than an empty, ghostly breath of wind.” Nature lovers won’t regret tuning in.