Donald R. Griffin (1915–2003)

This is a beautiful story about bats and their ability to echolocate. Written in the 1950's, the most impressive thing I found was Griffin's ability to convey his passion for science. He was not afforded the luxuries that scientists have today. For example, he details how he had to setup a high-speed camera to record an oscilloscope and sync the two just right to capture the high frequencies calls bats were made. There is a beautiful story of him running around a mini-golf course trying to record a brief sound from bats flying above.

Donald paints a great picture of the history of scientists trying to figure out how bats see in the dark. Many of the questions posed in this book are answered now, but there is still a great deal to learn by reading this book.

I find that his passion for his work results in rambling at several occasions, and I wouldn't feel bad if you skip over a few paragraphs now and then. At one point, he complained that engineers were too caught up in making colour televisions to care about his science!

Overall, a beautiful book that I would recommend to anybody interested in bats and science in the 1950s.… (mehr)