How to Smell like a Dog, with Ed Yong
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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.
Science Chats with our favorite nerds.
Yeah.
Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Versus. Today on the show, the amazing superpowers of animals. Some animals can see things that we can't see. They can hear things that we can't hear, touch things that we will never feel. And so today on the show, we are diving into their world to talk about the groundbreaking science of how animals perceive. And to go on this journey, we'll be chatting to Ed Yong. He's a Pulitzer Prize winning science writer. And we'll be talking about his book. An immense world, how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us. And I think you're going to love this chat. You are going to look at your dog in a totally different light by the end of this chat.
You're going to appreciate how eyes have literally painted the world. And you may even feel sorry for the humble cockroach. If you are listening to this on Spotify, you can also be watching it because it's on video. Hello. My interview with Ed Young is coming up. just after the break.
Welcome back today on the show, the wonderful Ed Yong. Hi, Ed. Welcome to the show.
Hello. Yeah, thanks for having me.
In your book, you say that sort of regardless of our technology or intellect, we are really perceiving only a thin fraction of all there is to perceive. Our sense of the world is an illusion. Yes. So tell me more about that.
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.
It's such a lovely idea as we're walking around in the world to think about what else is there? What else could I be seeing or perceiving if I was a different animal?
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. And now I want to move through some of the senses. And one of the things that perhaps we get wrong about ourselves, which is the sense of smell. I think... We have this idea that humans don't have a great sense of smell. I think this sort of evolutionary chitchat that you hear, this sort of story I guess I've heard since primary school is like now we are visual creatures and we don't really use our smell. It's been thrown off to the side. But is that entirely true? How bad is a human's sense of smell?
Yeah, it's actually all right. I'm not going to tell you that our sense of smell is as good as, say, an elephant's or a dog's. They have hardware that we don't have. Humans really aren't too bad at it. We have decent noses. We can smell a lot of different kinds of chemicals. We can detect some of them at concentrations that rival championship sniffers like Doc.
And in your book, you did a fun experiment involving getting on all fours. Tell me about it.
Yes, so I went to see a woman named Alexandra Horowitz who studies dogs, dog cognition, a dog's sense of smell.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–9:18
2
What is Ed Yong’s core idea about animal 'umwelt' and sensory worlds?
9:18–21:19
3
How good is a human sense of smell compared to dogs and other animals?
21:19–43:00
4
Why do dogs sniff human groins and what information does scent convey?
43:00–45:06