Quite literally astounding. 

It’s so clear the author is constantly delighted by the topic, which is very enjoyable for the reader. It’s quite engagingly written, never dull or lingering too long or too technical.  A fair amount of little jokes/puns which keeps it lively. Yong explains things so clearly and concisely, with great examples so it’s easy to follow along at every point. (Except for magnetism and electric fields, tbh those were hard for me.) 

I loved moving through each sense in a chapter, and then at the end tying together all the senses + the ending note on human impact. The stuff about light/noise pollution was riveting and has made me really think about all the noise we’re constantly surrounding ourselves and thus other animals in. Even today, several days after finishing this book, I was thinking about how on my hike several planes went by and how much noise that produced. 

This book was riveting and I’m recommending it to everyone.