Encyclopedia of Living Things and Sounds
Edited by The Acoustical Society of Japan, Asakura Publishing, 2019, 441 pages, 15,000 yen (excluding tax)
Traditionally, senses are classified into five categories, known as the five senses. There is no doubt that vocal communication is the foundation of sociality in humans, but humans are diurnal and heavily rely on vision. Perhaps because of this, vision (the light sense) was the sense whose detailed physiological mechanism was elucidated the earliest, and when I was a student, I felt that research on other senses was lagging behind. On the other hand, many animals rely on sound (in the broad sense of vibration, not limited to sounds audible to humans) to survive. This book is a dictionary-style publication in which the Bioacoustic Society—an association of researchers studying sound in biological phenomena from the perspectives of biology, physics, and engineering—has summarized various topics, generally in two-page spreads. It is a substantial volume consisting of 203 entries by 9 editors and 134 contributors, and can be said to be a masterpiece crafted with the full dedication of the Bioacoustic Society.
The English book title is "Encyclopedia of Bioacoustic," but the fact that the Japanese title is not simply translated as "Seibutu On-gaku Jiten" (Encyclopedia of Bioacoustics) reflects the intentions of the Acoustical Society of Japan, which edited the work. An encyclopedia named after a specific academic discipline is generally consulted by researchers in that field or by undergraduate and graduate students pursuing studies in it. Therefore, an "Encyclopedia of Bioacoustics" would target readers involved in bioacoustics. However, judging by its pricing, the main target of this book is likely libraries, while the title "Encyclopedia of Creatures and Sound" suggests that it is intended for non-experts as well. Moreover, although it is an encyclopedia, it is not merely something to be "consulted" to look up specific entries. As someone who is not a bioacoustics expert, I was able to read through it without difficulty; in fact, "reading" it was a pleasure. Of course, the content was interesting, but this is likely because the process of condensing each entry into the limited space of a two-page spread extracted only the essential elements. Furthermore, despite having such a large number of contributors, the reading experience lacks any disjointed impression, which is undoubtedly due to the editors' efforts to maintain consistency. Therefore, I recommend this encyclopedia not only as a reference to be "consulted" as needed, but also as a book to be "read" from cover to cover.
Chapter 1 lists basic properties of sound and vibration, and I read through it while reorganizing the physics knowledge I studied in high school. Chapter 2 is mainly devoted to human vocalization and hearing, and I found its relationship with linguistics interesting. Some items, such as artificial middle and inner ears, were completely new to me. Chapter 3 is mostly dedicated to echolocation and communication using ultrasound in bats, giving a sense of the major role bats have played in this field. Chapter 4 mainly features items on echolocation and communication using ultrasound in dolphins. Chapter 5 covers birds, including items on sound source localization in owls—which can be called a classic of neuroethology—and song learning in songbirds. Chapter 6 is about reptiles and amphibians, and includes two items on research recently conducted in the laboratory I belong to. Chapter 7 focuses primarily on fish. Chapter 8 is about insects, featuring content that I, as an entomologist, find familiar. Attraction by sex pheromones in moth mating behavior has long been famous, and it was a shock when it was discovered in recent years that ultrasound is also important, a topic that is also included here. In addition, four items are devoted to applied aspects such as pest control. "Singing insects and culture" is a very Japanese topic. Furthermore, I read the three items on plants with astonishment, coming from a distant field. The final Chapter 9 is a section that particularly demonstrates the originality of this book, presenting the results of a comparative biological approach that differs from the general overview in Chapter 1 and the specific details in Chapters 2 through 8. We speak of "singing insects," but most mechanisms by which insects produce sound differ from the voice production mechanisms of vertebrates. The auditory receptors of insects and the ears of vertebrates also have entirely different origins. By examining such convergence phenomena, one can understand the depth of biological evolution.
Thus, except for its price, the book is full of praise, but I have one complaint to make. A species of nematode living in the soilCaenorhabditis elegansis now widely known as a model organism, and students often call it "C. elegans." However, if asked for the genus name abbreviated by C., they often don't know it. Even if one were to allow calling this nematode "C. elegans" in conversation, writing it that way in such books is sacrilege against taxonomy or nomenclature. By the way, organisms with a genus name starting with C and a specific epithet elegans are known to include about 70 species of animals and about 20 species of plants (https://www.itis.gov/). That is to say, "C. Elegans" alone doesn't indicate which of these it refers to. It must have been written by an "H. Sapiens."
Eiji Numata (Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University)
Encyclopedia of Living Things and Sounds: Book Review (PDF file)
