Life Under the Sun Book

In Life Under the Sun, an appreciative essay on how various organisms respond to sunlight, Peter Ensminger explains how, no matter where it is found, almost every form of life "has become specialized to sense the quantity, direction, polarization, wavelength, and periodicity of light." Many of the higher mammals, humans among them, have well-developed visual abilities; as Ensminger writes, the range of light encountered during a given day can be likened in magnitude to the height of a small child (about 3 feet) at one extreme as compared to the diameter of the earth (about 7,950 miles) at the other, and the healthy human eye functions over this range and more, even at extraordinarily low light levels. Vision, indeed, is the most important of our senses. Ensminger notes that "a single glance instantly gives us information about our surroundings that is much more sophisticated than that from our other senses." It is important for countless other species as well; as many as forty visual systems have evolved separately in invertebrates, following different principles of optical design. In his lively, well-illustrated text, Ensminger offers an overview of these many visual systems while considering the manifold workings of sunlight. He even explains why you should eat your carrots, and why the old farmers' saying that it's best to plough by moonlight is true. --Gregory McNameeRead More