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Ed Yong on An Immense World
Yong discusses animal senses and the reporting behind An Immense World on #PouredOver.
Quick facts
Science · BiologyOn my shelf
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
Yong’s debut reframes the microbiome not as germs to fear but as a fundamental partner in animal life: the trillions of bacteria that build our organs, educate our immune systems, digest our food, and shape our behavior. He extends the lens beyond humans to squid, aphids, and wasps, arguing that the entire animal kingdom is better understood as interconnected multitudes than as isolated individuals.
This is Yong’s foundational argument, delivered with the clarity and humor that would define his career: complex microbiology made genuinely funny and legible without being dumbed down. It rewired how a lot of readers think about the boundary between self and other.
Science · Animal Senses
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
Yong explores the umwelt — the unique perceptual world — of dozens of species: a crocodile’s face as sensitive as fingertips, a giant squid’s eyes evolved to spot sparkling whales, plants that sense the inaudible songs of courting insects. The book systematically dismantles the assumption that human senses are the baseline against which animal perception should be measured.
An Immense World won the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Royal Society Science Book Prize and made the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2022 — deserved, since it does the hardest thing in science writing: make the reader viscerally feel how alien another creature’s experience of reality actually is, rather than just describing it.
Frequently asked questions about Ed Yong’s books
From the bookshelf
“The world is full of wonders, but they are wonders of a subtle kind.”
— Ed Yong, An Immense World
For more science writing that makes the unfamiliar feel urgent, browse the full shelf.
