Science Journalist Ed Yong Kicks Off University Forum

Fri, 09/06/2024 - 04:01pm | By: Dr. David Tisdale

Ed Yong, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist and author of the award-winning book An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, will discuss how the sensory toolkit possessed by animals so radically differs from their human counterparts when he speaks at University Forum on Sept. 17 at 6:30 p.m. in the historic Bennett Auditorium at Southern Miss. Admission is free and members of the university and public are invited.

A former staff writer at The Atlantic, Yong’s work is known for exploring scientific concepts in accessibly ways for his readers. His 2016 book I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life and An Immense World were both New York Times bestsellers, and An Immense World won the Andrew Carnegie Medal. The Poynter Institute for Media Studies named Yong “the most important and impactful journalist” of 2020 for his writing on the coronavirus.

At Forum, Yong will speak about the “unique sensory bubble” that all animals live in and how humans perceive “but a tiny sliver of an immense world.”

“Dogs, Ed Yong reminds us, can detect ‘bombs, drugs, landmines, missing people, bodies, smuggled cash, truffles, invasive weeds, agricultural diseases, low blood sugar, bedbugs, oil pipeline leaks, and tumors,’” said Dr. Andrew Haley, director of University Forum. “They, like much of the animal world, do not rely on sight as humans do. In this Forum talk, the Pulitzer-winning author will walk us through the ‘immense world’ that animals experience and humans too often ignore. I’m anticipating an exciting journey with his talk and, with no offense to the dogs, an eye-opening experience.” 

University Forum is presented by the USM Honors College.