The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants

Book cover of The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants by Karen Bakkerby Karen Bakker
@DrKarenBakker

An amazing journey into the hidden realm of nature’s sounds

The natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. Scientists are using groundbreaking digital technologies to uncover these astonishing sounds, revealing vibrant communication among our fellow creatures across the Tree of Life.

At once meditative and scientific, The Sounds of Life shares fascinating and surprising stories of nonhuman sound, interweaving insights from technological innovation and traditional knowledge. We meet scientists using sound to protect and regenerate endangered species from the Great Barrier Reef to the Arctic and the Amazon. We discover the shocking impacts of noise pollution on both animals and plants. We learn how artificial intelligence can decode nonhuman sounds, and meet the researchers building dictionaries in East African Elephant and Sperm Whalish. At the frontiers of innovation, we explore digitally mediated dialogues with bats and honeybees. Technology often distracts us from nature, but what if it could reconnect us instead?


The Sounds of Life offers hope for environmental conservation and affirms humanity’s relationship with nature in the digital age. After learning about the unsuspected wonders of nature’s sounds, we will never see walks outdoors in the same way again.
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Interview with the Author

Podcast art for Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa MariaTalk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria 
Sounds of Nature w/ Karen Bakker
11/21/22           65 min

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Ep348 – Karen Bakker | The Sounds of Life
5/23/23         54 min

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Karen Bakker: The Sounds of Life
1/16/23           40 min

Podcast art for Inquiring MindsInquiring Minds 
Plants have been listening to us this whole time
3/10/23            61 min

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Karen Bakker, “The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants” (Princeton UP, 2022)
11/11/22            56 min

Podcast art for Keen OnKeen On 
Karen Bakker: A Digital Dolittle? On Technology That Will Enable Us to Talk with Other Species… Including Plants and Trees
10/30/22          34 min

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