Reviews and Comments

An impressive book, full of wonderful facts and some grounded speculations looking at how various creatures sense, and make sense, of the world around them. Ed Yong (the author) reminds us that trying to understand the behaviour of creatures based on what we can sense can be futile. And by forcing creatures into a human centric world (near constant lighting at night, urban noise, artificial chemicals in the environment), we may be altering their behaviour and damaging the natural biodiversity.

Ed Yong starts by introducing the reader to the term, Umwelt (as used by biologist Jakob von Uexkül) to represent each creature's unique perception of the world. He then shows us the Umwelts of various creatures as experienced through the various senses: smell, taste, light, colour, the sensation of pain and heat, contact, vibrations and sound. He then covers three of the more mysterious senses; echolocation and the ability to sense electric and magnetic fields. Each sense is shown by giving examples of various creatures whose ability to use the sense differs and/or exceeds our abilities to use them.

He then closes the book by showing how animals draw upon the various senses to form each creature's Umwelt, and how we are altering what creatures are sensing from their surroundings by 'polluting' the environment with our lights, noise and artificial chemicals.

Throughout the book, Ed Yong features the research and work being done by numerous researchers to understand how creatures sense the world and, possibly, how they make sense of the world using the information provided by the senses.

It may be impossible to fully imagine how even familiar creatures like dogs sense the world compared to us, much less creatures like spiders, birds, fishes, electric eels, moles or elephants (all examples from the book). But Ed Yong gives it a good try, and by the end, you'll probably appreciate the fact that we may never share the Umwelt of other creatures, but you'll be aware that they see the world differently from us and that needs to be accounted for when trying to understand why they behave in certain ways that may seem puzzling to us, limited as we are by our own Umwelts.

An average issue of Interzone, with interesting stories by Alison Wilgus, G.V. Anderson and Sean McMullen.

• "The Backstitched Heart of Katharine Wright" by Alison Wilgus: an interesting story involving Katharine Wright, the sister of the famous Wright brothers (Orville and Wilbur) who suddenly discovers the ability to find a particular 'thread' of time, jump back through time and alter the future. This she does to help save her brother from an early death from a bicycle accident, and twice during their early flying days. But when Wilbur dies from typhoid fever, possibly an unavoidable death, she has to decide whether she wants to jump back through time one last time to try to save him and keep their family together.

• "The Fukinaga Special Chip Job" by Tim Chawaga: a glimpse of a future where people live in mainly isolated cities and some people make a living by hunting through the remains of civilization. In this case, hunting for a rare brand of potato chips.

• "This Buddhafield is Not Your Buddhafield" by William Squirrell: a tale that goes nowhere, as far as I can tell. A maid is offered a job cleaning a floating mansion above Uranus, which she does, year after year. And as the years past, her connections to her family and humanity gradually disappear. Yet, she never questions her job or why she still works there.

• "For the Wicked, Only Weeds Will Grow" by G.V. Anderson: an unusual tale about a colony of alien, mobile plant-like species who ease people waiting to die by providing pain-reducing drugs. One day, a grumpy terminal patient arrives, and it would involve a lot of patience and communication from one alien provider to ease his journey into death.

• "Seven Stops Along the Graffiti Road" by David Cleden: a meandering story about people who seem to be wandering forever down a forest road, looking for it to end, and meeting fellow travellers along the way. Unresolved threads make the story feel like a fragment of a larger tale.

• "Terminalia" by Sean McMullen: an interesting glimpse of an alternate history where rich and powerful people can live for longer (and keep control of their wealth) by having their 'souls' transferred into mechanical beings. One group wants to break their stranglehold, but it would involve a temporary death of an associate and the involvement of a doctor who can revive people who have cardiac arrests.

An above average issue, with mostly 'mild' fantasy stories (mild in the sense that there is minimal magic involved). Among those that stood out for me are the ones by Carrie Vaughn, Sean McMullen and Pip Coen.

• "To the Beautiful Shining Twilight" by Carrie Vaughn: the fairy king revisits the home of a member of a group of human musicians, who once saved his kingdom, after many years. Time has moved on for her, and she is reluctant to get involved with him again. But he pleads with her to do one more small task, at the end of which he offers her a choice. Will she choose to be involved in his fairy kingdom again?

• "The Province of Saints" by Robert Reed: a thoughtful story about a police office called in to help on a case where an entire family has been killed except for one member, the daughter. As the office interrogates the daughter, whom he has known since childhood, details of their relationship and the family's terrible stranglehold over the local county are revealed. But the ultimate revelation would be about a substance that would be the ultimate cause of the deaths and, predicts the office, possibly the end of civilization. Suffice to say, the substance enhances a particular emotion and causes internal agony when too much is used.

• "Joe Diabo's Farewell" by Andy Duncan: a story about a Native American Indian who witnesses the death of a fellow construction worker in the city in the early 20th century. With work stopped for the day, he takes the chance to dress up as an Indian as part of a display before a film about General Custer. His actions on that day, would make him rethink his relationship with the dead worker. A story with a small touch of fantasy elements.

• "The City of Lost Desire" by Phyllis Eisenstein: a story of a musician with some magical powers of movement that has joined a desert caravan on its way to an old city. The caravan carries a powder that is a powerful mind changing drug and much desired by the king of the city. But things take an interesting turn when the musician is apparently the only one able to open the entrance to an old tower near the city, which makes him a noble person in the eyes of the king; perhaps noble enough to marry his daughter. Political and business intrigue gathers pace in this mildly magical and fantasy story.

• "The Right Number of Cats" by Jenn Reese: a short short about a person who fights off the addition of another cat to her household. The cat must work hard to convince her otherwise.

• "Survey" by Adam-Troy Castro: a disturbing story set in dialogue-form between two people involving a survey whose continuing answers to questions would have a horrifying effect on both the person surveyed and the people whose lives would be affected by the choices during the survey.

• "Blue as Blood" by Leah Cypess: a girl grows up on an alien world where the colour blue is culturally treated with disgust. Then she returns to Earth and continues to have violent emotional reactions to seeing anything blue. Even when the reactions gradually die down, she discovers her relationship with her parents and peers and constantly coloured by her reaction to blue and to grumblings about the way the aliens treat humanity.

• "The Washer from the Ford" by Sean McMullen: a fascinating story involving a man who, after witnessing a stabbing, stumbles into the fairy world that exists among us and discovers not only a gift for seeing other people's emotional states but also a curse that afflicts him. As the story progresses, he learns not only of his capabilities, but also the various links between the human and fairy world that turn this story into an interesting fairy detective story to be solved.

• "Tactical Infantry Bot 37 Dreams of Trochees" by Marie Vibbert: after being involved in endless battles and seeing soldiers die, the remaining battle bots, who have started to distract themselves from the battles by developing 'hobbies', also start having 'electric dreams' and assert their independence.

• "Fifteen Minutes from Now" by Erin Cashier: a rambling, one-sided conversation by a person who claims to be a time traveller sent (multiple times) to torture information out of a potential terrorist who is about to detonate a bomb. Time travel paradoxes mixed with threats are, sadly, not my kind of story to like.

• "The Fall from Griffin's Peak" by Pip Coen: a mild fantasy story about a thief hired to steal a special item from a store with magical protection. Told in a way that makes you sympathetic towards the thief (from the treatment she gets from the people who hire her), but it's given a rather surprising and emotional twist at the end that makes you re-evaluate your conclusions about the behaviour of the thief and the people who hired her.

A fascinating book about an elusive character, Peter Higgs, an elusive particle, the Higgs boson, and how the two would lead Higgs to getting an elusive prize, the Nobel. With access to Higgs and other scientists, the author is able to give a good idea of who Higgs is and his personality, as well as give the reader an idea of how the Higgs mechanism operates and its importance to particle physics.

The book starts with a biography of Higgs, who was inspired to take up physics upon learning that physicist Paul Dirac was an alumnus from his school. His initial desire to study quantum physics get accidentally derailed by his supervisor, leading him to take up molecular physics before eventually turning back to the field of quantum physics.

Then, theories about how superconductivity occurs would turn out to be the inspiration for Higgs to write his famous two papers that would propose a mechanism for how some particles get mass. Of course, he was not the first to get the idea, but his paper would contain an additional item that would propel him to 'stardom': a prediction about a particle that is associate with the mechanism.

By examining the chronology of events in that critical period, the author gives a look at the research happening at that time by Higgs and other scientists that would eventually lead to the particle being called the Higgs boson, despite the mechanism for giving mass to particles being proposed by other scientists before Higgs. As it turns out, mistakes in assigning priority in highly cited papers would give the impression that Higgs was the first to get the idea.

With advances in experimental particle physics (especially the machines used to accelerate and detect particles) and theoretical physics pointing the way, the hunt was on to find the Higgs particle that would complete what would now be known as the Standard Model of particle physics. The highlight would be the announcement at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the discovery of the Higgs particle, with Higgs and other scientists who came up with the idea, present to hear the news.

But that would not be the end of it. Higgs, a private person, would now be in the spotlight for getting a Nobel Prize. But on the day of the announcement itself, Higgs decides to 'vanish' to avoid the media scrambling to interview him. But there is no avoiding the media on the day of the prize presentation itself.

This is one of the more accessible books about particle physics and the people who study them to try to figure out how nature works. The appendix of the book includes Higgs's two papers, where he shows the need for a Higgs mechanism to provide mass to some particles and the implications of the mechanism (the Higgs particle). Both papers are one page long each, but together, they would lead many people to come together to discover whether that is how the universe actually works.

An interesting, character driven story that starts with a monk that is dissatisfied with the way their (singular they) life is and goes on a voyage of exploration as a tea monk, serving various kinds of teas they has selected to people who just need to unwind.

But even this proves not to be enough to quell the unease in the monk, and they go on a journey to visit an abandoned place in what would be the wild part of the moon the monk inhabits. On the journey, they would encounter the first sentient robot (the robots left for the wild woods after gaining sentience) to be seen by man for many years, who is also on a journey to find out what people need.

In their journey together, they would converse on the nature of man and robot, their desires and curiosity about each other and the world around them. By the end, the monk may, perhaps, have found what they want. But their journey to find out what other people want may be just beginning.

Not much is actually revealed about the world they inhabit (how it came about, etc.), but a quiet, gentle book about a person and a robot with differing points of view discussing the nature of how people might live and see the nature of their world.

An interesting change from the usual plot and science driven SF that I usually read.

The usual story of an immigrant who tries to make it in his new adopted home. Only here, the immigrant is of Indian descent from America, and his adopted home is India, where he has migrated to work at "India World", a Disneyland type theme park in India meant to showcase all that is good about a rising, and confident, India that employs 'returning' Indians.

But as in some stories of immigrants, prejudice against immigrants raises its head, and it ties back to the troubles migration had on his family when they moved from India to the US. In the end, he has to decide whether to remain an up and rising migrant in India, or return to America (which, to him, is his homeland) and help his father make it a better place.

An unexpected story of 'reverse' migrations, set in a future where India is now a rising power (with little mention of China), while America itself seems to be caught in the rut of decline, making the choices for the immigrant more stark.

An excellent book about the mission to explore Pluto. Starting with the initial desire of Alan Stern to explore Pluto, the book then looks at the bureaucratic, political and technological hurdles the New Horizons mission had to overcome before being built and launched, followed by the mission itself and finally the fly-by of Pluto and the amazing discoveries New Horizons made about the world and beyond.

Chapter 1 looks at the early life of Alan Stern, who was fascinated with space from an early age and wanted to get involved in the space effort. This he does with an education in orbital mechanics and space engineering. But his fascination with Pluto would start when his advisor gives him a problem on Pluto to work on. A brief history on the discovery of Pluto itself is covered, as well as the space probes Voyager 1 and 2 and the decision that would lead to Pluto being the only object not visited by the Voyager probes.

Chapter 2 covers the early discoveries about Pluto, from its moon, Charon, to its chemistry. These discoveries would reveal what a strange world Pluto was. This would galvanize Stern to organize a group of mainly young scientists into advocating for a mission to Pluto at NASA.

Chapter 3 looks at the early period of Stern and colleagues' numerous proposals and studies for proposed missions to Pluto. This was a period of ups and downs when they put in a lot of work, pull strings and generally navigate the various political and bureaucratic hurdles to keep the plan for a mission to Pluto alive. But it would appear to come to nothing when NASA's then administrator says enough is enough and halts all plans for a Pluto mission.

Chapter 4 looks at the aftermath of that decision. A public campaign to restart a Pluto mission gets under way. NASA finally relents and agrees to a Pluto mission. That decision starts a challenge as various teams, including one led by Stern, must now submit detailed proposals for the mission and do it within months (instead of the usual years). The pressure to perform is incredible, and it would all come down to a final phone call from NASA when Stern finally learns that his proposal has won the day. It was during this proposal period that Stern comes up with the name for the mission: New Horizons.

Chapter 5 sees several more political and bureaucratic obstacles blocking the New Horizons project. Its budget is cancelled, then restored, on condition that it got top priority for a top NASA review. This, it does, only for other obstacles to appear until, finally, the go ahead is given to actually start putting the mission together.

Chapter 6 looks the building of the New Horizons probe. The logistics of preparing for the mission is covered, followed by an overview of the instruments New Horizons would carry to Pluto. But logistical and technological problems would appear, and the mission was in danger of coming in over budget and delayed, killing the mission. It would need a project manager to see the danger the mission was in and convince NASA to provide help to overcome the issues.

Chapter 7 looks at the nuclear power supply used by New Horizons and the challenges it brings to the project; in getting the needed plutonium for the power supply and in answering the necessary environmental impact studies required for any nuclear-powered mission in an extremely short time. But in the end, it all comes together, and the mission is now ready to be launched.

Chapter 8 covers the decision to launch New Horizons. Just when New Horizons was to be certified ready to fly, an external event occurs that would throw the launch in doubt: a test of a rocket fuel tank by the manufacturer of the rocket used to launch New Horizons fails. That starts to create doubts about the rocket used for New Horizons. The final meeting held to decided whether to launch New Horizons or not would come done to whether the head of NASA would agree to the launch or not. In the end, it was decided to go ahead with the launch.

Chapter 9 covers the preparation for the actual launch itself. It is not without drama: two aborted attempts were made before New Horizons is finally launched on its way to Pluto. Before that, the book describes the various decisions taken by mission control, the deep space tracking network, etc. before it could be launched. The launch itself was a success.

Chapter 10 describes the shake-down and testing done on New Horizons during the first phase of its journey to Jupiter before going on to Pluto. Huge emphasis is placed on making sure there are no mistakes in the code sent to New Horizons because any mistake, as shown by the list of previous missions that had failed, would be fatal. Some problems would be encountered, but on the whole, they are able to overcome them.

Chapter 11 looks at the planning done for the Pluto flyby itself. This planning was intensive and involved juggling many conflicting factors, as demands are made on flyby timing, instruments used, the power involved, etc. Each change in one factor would cause cascading changes in others. But in the end, a flyby plan was decided upon. Now, to execute it.

Chapter 12 looks at concerns over the safety of the New Horizons probe as it approaches Pluto over as yet unknown hazards (like extra moons or rings). Fail-safe options were developed that would return some data before New Horizons' closest approach so that some information would be obtained in the event the probe is destroyed during the encounter. Other options to shield the craft from potential debris (and still give some science observations) were also developed.

Chapter 13 looks at the plans for New Horizons to observe and fly-by other objects after Pluto. Now, as New Horizons approaches Pluto and is woken from hibernation, the excitement over the fly-by begins to build. New observations using New Horizons' instruments determine that there were no known hazards in its path, and it is go for approach with full science observations.

Chapter 14 looks at the events leading up to the encounter, when the loading of the observation program to New Horizons causes an error and loss of communication. It is only when the backup system re-establishes contact that the cause of the error is known for certain. Now, with time to fly-by ticking away, the team has to reboot the main computer, and reload the program without causing any other problems and all in a matter of days. In the end, it was done with hours to spare, and New Horizons is ready for its flyby.

Chapter 15 looks at the initial images and data returned by New Horizons prior to fly-by, and they caused a sensation. The 'heart' of Pluto and other geological features are revealed, showing Pluto to be an amazing world. All of it heightens the excitement as New Horizons breaks contact with Earth to perform its fly-by observations, and the Earth holds it breath.

Chapter 16 covers the events when New Horizons contacts Earth again, to the delight of observers, with a full suite of data. As the data is downloaded and revealed, they show Pluto to be a world unlike any other, with features and properties unlike any other world in the Solar System. New Horizons would prove to be a sensational success.

Chapter 17 looks at New Horizons after the Pluto fly-by. Its primary mission accomplished, New Horizons is now prepared for its next encounter with another object on New Year's Day, 2019, and afterwards, performing observations on interstellar space, joining the Voyager probes.

A fascinating book about fungi: how they live, their relationship with other organisms (including ourselves) and how, despite being small individually, collectively they have a major influence on the ecosystems of the world. You'll get to appreciate fungi and what researchers have been discovering about their lives. But much still remains unknown about fungi.

Chapter one looks at how fungi senses and affects it surrounds via chemical signals, or smells. Using truffles as the main example, fungi are shown to be able to trigger an animal's sense of smell when the truffle wants to be eaten, so it can reproduce. Fungi also use chemical signals to hunt for prey (nematode worms for example), to detect other fungi in the area to determine if they are friend or foe, and to reproduce by finding another compatible fungus. Chemical signals are also used by fungi and plants to sense each other and to determine whether they should enter into a mutual living relationship.

Chapter two takes a closer look at how fungi makes sense of its world. Through observations and experiments, fungi are found to be able to solve networking problems (like navigating a maze) just like slime moulds (which are not fungi). By various unknown means, fungi can sense the direction of food (or other sensations) and modify their network organization based on some way to make a collective decision. The way this is done may be chemical signals, hydraulic pressure or even electrical impulses, but much research remains to be done to learn just how fungi make 'decision' or have the equivalent of a 'brain' to process environmental signals.

Chapter three looks at enigmatic lichen, which are organisms that are a combination of fungi and photosynthesizing organism. Originally thought to be fungi that had 'enslaved' algae, they are now recognized to be an organism that is made of mutually dependent parts (symbiosis). Lichens are found in all kinds of environments and even survive exposed to outer space by producing protective tissue and chemicals (some of which are used by humans). Research has now shown that lichens can form from many kinds of fungi and organisms, and consists of more than one fungus and other organisms. Much remains unknown about lichens, which are the first living things to colonize new environments and, possibly, other worlds.

Chapter four looks at the mind-altering and animal controlling abilities of fungus. Much remains unknown about how certain fungus can control the body of animals (like ants and other insects) to make them behave in ways to help spread the spore of fungus. On humans, 'magic mushrooms' (which produce psilocybin and other psychedelics) have long fascinated people with their ability to alter the mental states of people. One puzzle is why fungi produce such psychedelics and why they affect people.

Chapter five looks at the relationship between fungi and plants. When plants move on to land (as algae), it was fungi that served the purpose of roots to extract nutrients from the ground. Even today, this relationship between fungi and trees (which now have roots) still holds, with fungi extracting ground nutrients for trees, while trees provide energy (from photosynthesis) to fungi. This relationship still holds many puzzles that researchers are struggling to understand, like the ability of different fungi to affect plant growth depending on their relationships.

Chapter six expands on the previous chapter to look at the relationships between fungi and groups of trees, under the name of Wood Wide Web (based on the World Wide Web that rose out of the internet). The author points out that the name, Wood Wide Web, itself misunderstands the network relationship between fungi and trees, as trees are not the 'masters' of this network, as trees and fungi allow the exchange of nutrients and 'messages' among themselves, affecting the growth of the entire network as well as its behaviour as the environment changes.

Chapter seven looks at the way fungus is changing the world. Fungi are able to digest and break down numerous substances from wood to synthetic materials (like plastic, nappies and cigarette butts), leading to possible new ways to recycle and decompose human wastes. But fungi can also be used as substitutes for other materials (like leather and foam) as well as help to repair ecosystems by removing toxic substances and possibly help bees by helping to eliminate the mites that are causing commercial bee colonies to collapse.

Chapter eight looks at our relationship with fungus, a relationship that goes back in time to when humans first began to be able to consume alcohol from fermented fruit (generated by yeasts). Yeast would be cultivated and domesticated to produce other foods (like bread), although the author makes a case for humanity being domesticated by yeasts (to help spread its spores).