Brittan, D.: "A Bat’s Life," Technology Review, vol. 97, February/March 1994, page 80. Almost everyone knows about bat sonar and how these remarkable animals echolocate. What may be surprising is that this system of echolocation is so precise that bats can actually construct an ultrasonic image with the same "acuity" as scenes interpreted with vision by other animals.

Gilbert, A. and C. Wysocki: "Smell: The Survey Results," National Geographic, October 1987, pages 514–25. A delightful and interesting account of how well we smell, based on a national survey. Among many surprising findings: women smell more accurately than men.

Hudspeth, A.: "How the Ear’s Works Work," Nature, vol. 341, October 1989, pages 397–404. A review of how sensory receptors in the ear activate ion channels to initiate nerve impulses.

Masland, R.: "The Functional Architecture of the Retina," Scientific American, December 1986, pages 102–11. An up-to-date description of the interconnections of the many cells beneath the retina.

Nathans, J.: "The Genes for Color Vision," Scientific American, February 1989, pages 42–49. An interesting account of how genetic engineers isolated the genes encoding the color-detecting proteins.

Pines, M., ed.: Seeing, Hearing, and Smelling the World: New Findings Help Scientists Make Sense of Our Senses, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, 1995. The latest experimental roundup of data contributing to our understanding of senses and sensation.

Schnapf, J. and D. Baylor: "How Photoreceptor Cells Respond to Light," Scientific American, April 1987, pages 40–47. A detailed account of how an individual photoreceptor in the eye is able to detect a single photon of light.

Stryer, L.: "The Molecules of Visual Excitation," Scientific American, July 1987, pages 42–50. A lucid description of the cascade that a photon initiates in a rod cell.

Suga, N.: "Biosonar and Neural Computation in Bats," Scientific American, June 1990, pages 60–68. How the bat brain is organized to extract information from biosonar signals. Highly recommended.

Thompson, E.: Colour Vision: A Study in Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Perception, Routledge Press, New York, 1995. Shades of Francis Crick! A philosophical look at cognition using color perception.

Waldvogel, J.: "The Bird’s Eye View," American Scientist, vol. 78, July–August, 1990, pages 342–53. Bird vision shows some interesting and surprising variations from the visual system of mammals. This is a clearly written and well-illustrated article summarizing the bird’s-eye view of the world.