Lyall Watson
Lyall Watson
Lyall Watsonwas a South African botanist, zoologist, biologist, anthropologist, ethologist, and author of many new age books, among the most popular of which is the best seller Supernature. Lyall Watson tried to make sense of natural and supernatural phenomena in biological terms. He is credited with coining the "Hundredth Monkey" phenomenonin his 1979 book, Lifetide...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth12 April 1939
cord lump nerve possible primitive smell stimulus tissue took turned
Smell was our first sense. It is even possible that being able to smell was the stimulus that took a primitive fish and turned a small lump of olfactory tissue on its nerve cord into a brain. We think because we smelled.
All I do is look, listen and try to make sense of what I find, in biological terms.
air almost close filled inorganic life places thick tissue
Air is traditionally 'thin,' but the more we learn about our atmosphere, the more substantial it becomes. In some places it is so filled with inorganic flotsam that it is almost thick enough to plough; in others, it has become so primed with the by-products of life that it comes close to being a living tissue in its own right.
aware begin buoyant ecology heavy imagine might mood naturally permanent planet quite share smell soft
We share our planet quite naturally with a permanent aeroplankton; a buoyant ecology too soft to hear, too small to see, but heavy with mood and meaning. Imagine being aware of all these airy inclusions - and you can begin to understand how it might feel to be able to smell really well.
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I have had close relationships with three species of wild pigs, each a chance encounter on a different continent, and all continue to enrich my life in surprising ways.
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Breathing air is a liberating experience. It freed our ancestors from the constraints of staying wet or having to remain within easy reach of water for refuge, respiration or reproduction. But the biggest change it made in our lives was to expose us to a whole new range of sensory experience.
bits centre cleanest downtown highway hour hundred los million pacific pieces rises somewhere south thick thousand
Even the cleanest air, at the centre of the South Pacific or somewhere over Antarctica, has two hundred thousand assorted bits and pieces in every lungful. And this count rises to two million or more in the thick of the Serengeti migration, or over a six-lane highway during rush hour in downtown Los Angeles.
circuits home literally means nostalgic serves smell wonderful word
Smell is stimulating. It stirs things up and makes us nostalgic - a wonderful word which literally means 'ache for home' - which serves to inspire new circuits in the brain.
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Even in the lives of fishes, sensation is seldom a matter of one thing or another. Senses overlap. The lines between them often tend to be blurred, and the best that we can manage, by way of description from the outside, is to say that the senses of fishes appear to dominate one at a time.
definitely elephant exactly secretive
Seriously, a smaller, leaner, cleaner, tuskless and more secretive elephant is exactly what is needed. It definitely would live longer.
advance finding lies stretching time
Smell is a long-distance sense, a way of stretching time and finding out in advance what lies ahead.
communication air water
The limits of sensory evolution in fish are defined very largely by their habitat. Water is physically supportive, carries some kinds of odour well, and is kind to sound - letting it travel several times faster than air will allow, but it inhibits other more personal kinds of communication.
memories light intuition
I live and work alone and travel light, relying largely on my memory and making a point of letting # intuition guide my way.
water body provocative
It is a fascinating and provocative thought that a body of water deserves to be considered as an organism in its own right.