Press

Book Reviews: Best science pick in Nature (2022): “In this beautifully written study, Karen Bakker compares digital technology that can reveal nature’s sounds with the microscope’s effect on vision. By extending our hearing, the technology allows us to encounter “new soundscapes around the world and across the Tree of Life”.

“meticulously researched and colorfully presented … the first [book]  to integrate so many dimensions of the field in a way that is accessible to non experts. It is a wonderful mix of animal ecology, narratives of science doing, futurism, and accounts of Indigenous knowledge that is as interdisciplinary as the field itself.”

“Portable sensors and artificial intelligence are helping researchers decode animal communication—and begin to talk back to nonhumans”

“Researchers are applying digital listening technology to the natural world. It turns out it has quite a lot to say to us—and not all of it sounds good”

“Noise pollution is a menace to humanity – and a deadly threat to animals”

“This fascinating documentary film tells the story of scientists using artificial intelligence to understand and potentially speak back to elephants, whales, bats, and other animals. Filmed in Kenya, Israel, Germany, and the US, it’s a global cinematic journey into the groundbreaking field of interspecies communication and what it would mean both for us humans and for the natural world.”

“With digital bioacoustics, scientists can eavesdrop on the natural world – and they’re learning some astonishing things”

“Innovative digital technologies are enabling us to decode nature’s sounds, leading to exciting ideas about planetary governance that incorporates nonhuman voices.”

“[The Sounds Of Life] is really bursting with insight, science, and stories—all presented with unusual clarity.”

“‘The Sounds Of Life’ uncovers the world of little-known sounds that make up life on Earth. Read it with us this November.”

“New insights into the functionality of nonhuman sound may help us conserve nature and protect ourselves from excessive noise.”

“Her new book lets us eavesdrop on the chatter between creatures – even plants – that our ears can’t detect. And reveals how new technologies, including AI, are opening the possibility of our being able to converse with other animals.”

“How artificial intelligence is helping us decode animal languages”

“The Sounds of Life was chosen as one of the Next Big Idea Club’s nominees for October 2022…”

“How does deep listening to nature promote biodiversity and a deeper relationship with the natural world?”

“Author and researcher Karen Bakker explores how technology helps us understand the way animals and plants communicate – and why that’s vital to human life on Earth as well.”

“Researchers are using drones, AI, and digital recorders to create a “zoological version of Google Translate.”

“The turtle moms that ‘talk’ to their eggs before they hatch”

“Could technology one day allow us to talk with animals?”

“Stories of speaking with animals are as old as human history”

“Google Translate for the zoo? How humans might talk to animals”

“Humans have long thought we are unique in our ability to communicate with sound. Thanks to digital recording technology, scientists are now beginning to grasp the ways that animals use sound and how even some plants respond to noises.”

“I think we have finally find a useful application of Artificial Intelligence…speaking to other creatures such as whales…although we might not actually like to hear what the sperm whales have to say”

“The sound shocked the world, when people realized that whales sang songs and otherwise communicated with each other. And the revelations have continued to come, as technology has expanded our ability to detect the sounds of living things, even when they are inaudible to humans.”

“With miniaturized microphones, robotic devices, drones and satellites, we are tuning into a world of complex communication we have never heard before.”

“The Sounds of Life was named one of the Globe and Mail’s Best Books to Gift this Year.”

“Advanced technologies like A.I. are enabling scientists to learn that the world is full of intelligent creatures with sophisticated languages, like honeybees. What might they tell us?”

“…this piece inspired in me to think that every species has some seemingly miraculous way of operating and communicating that is so foreign to our nature that it’s hard to even believe. And that, if understood, could inform our own technological advances. “

“Bakker takes stock of the technology that’s being developed to help humans “listen to nonhumans in powerful ways.”

“¿Podremos hablar pronto con las abejas?’

A conversation with Karen Bakker and Cara Santa Maria

“Artificial Intelligence could help humans talk to pets”

“Technology often distracts us from nature, but what if it could reconnect us instead?”

“Bakker’s well-researched stories showcase the mysterious communication
styles of whales, elephants, turtles, corals, plants, and bees as told by the scientists who care enough to listen. These scientific breakthroughs couldn’t come at a better time…”

“The burgeoning field of “digital bioacoustics” is helping us understand animals like never before.”

“Bakker’s book is full of stories of wonder and curiosity about the world of sound that constantly surrounds humanity.”

“Karen Bakker Q&A: “I am insatiably curious about Earth’s long-term future”

“How digital bioacoustics is revealing the unsuspected world of animal communication, and creating new possibilities for environmental conservation.”

“I couldn’t put it down….a fascinating and forward-looking book.”

“Karen Bakker’s The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants is the single best survey of research on the sounds of nature since R. Murray Schafer’s The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and then Tuning of the World.”

“How AI Technology Technology Can Help Us Talk to Animals: What would you say to your pet if you could?”

“We could be talking to animals in the next year using AI. But are we ready?”

“Digital technology is enabling scientists to detect and interpret the sounds of species as diverse as honey bees, peacocks, and elephants. In an e360 interview, geographer Karen Bakker discusses the surprising and complex ways that animals and plants use sound to communicate.”

“What do you get when you combine a reverential attitude toward the natural world with a high-tech approach to problem solving?”

“A fascinating new book…Bakker believes this technology will enable a new Enlightenment in which we will finally be able to communicate with nature.”

“Chock-ful of colourful characters…a must-read if you want to understand the full marvel of what we know about the ways life communicates on Earth, and to appreciate the many things we have yet to discover.”

“This week John is broadcasting from California…interview[ing] Karen Bakker, author of “The Sounds of Life – How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants”. They talk about the secret world of sound and how other species communicate”

“How technology is mapping the unheard conversations of the natural world…”

“A charming and timely book, packed with stories of remarkable, eye-opening (and ear-opening?) discoveries.”

“A Digital Dolittle? On Technology That Will Enable Us to Talk With Other Species… Including Plants and Trees”

“Listening to nature is an ancient art. But for most of human history, our ability to listen to other species was constrained. Humans are unable to hear many of the myriad sounds made by other species.”

“Explore the sounds in nature that we cannot hear….”

“Scientists have been speaking honeybees’ language – literally. Dr. Karen Bakker writes about how tech is allowing humans to talk to animals like never before.”

“Explore the tech that helps us understand the language of plants and animals, and how it may hold the key to protecting biodiversity”

“Tierlaute entschlüsseln mit künstlicher Intelligenz”

“Decode animal sounds with artificial intelligence”

“This is a rare book that is both emotionally moving and scientifically stimulating…”

“Perhaps intelligence needs to be redefined and expanded to include plants.”

“Have you ever dreamed of talking to the animals and actually having them answer back in their language? Leaps in technology and science are taking us to the point of being able to do just that!”

“Through the stories she has gathered from around the world, Bakker reveals how new technology has given us “a planetary hearing aid,” both to better understand how nonhuman life uses sound and the ways in which these sounds can help monitor and protect species”

featured in the “What We Are Reading Today” segment

“Bakker is talking about extension of our experience and our understanding and our sympathy in ways not possible before the advent of digital technology…”

“University of British Columbia Professor and author of The Sounds of Life Karen Bakker told Jo McManus on 6PR Afternoons this research could potentially lead to the creation of animal translation devices.”

“Through the stories she has gathered from around the world, Bakker reveals how new technology has given us “a planetary hearing aid,” both to better understand how nonhuman life uses sound and the ways in which these sounds can help monitor and protect species”

“La ricercatrice canadese Karen Bakker con il suo libro The Sounds of Life esplora le possibilità della bioacustica. “L’intelligenza artificiale ci aiuterà a decifrare sempre meglio le voci del mondo, ma dobbiamo affrontare subito le questioni etiche”

“Canadian researcher Karen Bakker explores the possibilities of bioacoustics in her book The Sounds of Life. “Artificial intelligence will help us to decipher the voices of the world ever better, but we must address ethical issues immediately”