Karen Shanor - Bats Sing, Mice Giggle

ICON BOOKS

First and foremost, we are grateful to Icon editor Simon Flynn and his extraordinary group, especially Nick Sidwell, Andrew Furlow, Duncan Heath and Najma Finlay, who labored with patience night and day across multiple time zones to produce a book with cutting-edge science. Their understanding and skill in coordinating the tasks that needed to be performed at various stages of the production were outstanding. We thank our agents, Muriel Nellis and especially Jane Roberts of the Literary and Creative Artists, Inc. for their expertise and constant support in this endeavor. Janes immense enthusiasm and literary wisdom kept us feeling optimistic about completing the book during difficult times. She was always there for us when we needed a quick second opinion or a readers perspective. On the academic side, we are deeply indebted to Karl Pribram, who at the age of 91 continues to be a great source of inspiration. His engaging lectures and stimulating discussions at Georgetown University provided an intellectual forum for many thoughtful interactions between the authors. We are also thankful to Georgetown Professor Patrick Heelan for his guidance on the quantum physics and seismological concepts alluded to in this book. John Caprio, Thomas Finger and Nobuo Suga also have been scientific mentors whose interesting research has contributed to some of the findings reported in this book.

Marine biologist Robert Woollacott of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ken Ferebee of the US National Park Service, Stuart Brown, author of the book Play, mathematician James Shanor, theoretical physicist Sarbmeet Kanwal, geologist Gordy Shanor, and David Wood of the Sidwell Friends science program all shared their professional expertise that helped to improve earlier drafts of the manuscript. We also thank Ian Hay Falconer and Constance Culler Falconer for their literary research, and Daniel Perry and Maxinder Kanwal for their critical input to the manuscript. Walt Ellison provided his invaluable computer expertise to keep our communication lines buzzing across the two continents.

We also want to acknowledge Srimati Kamala, Nancy Bugos, Judith Millon, Goldia and John Hodgdon, John Wusteman, Muthiah Veerappan, Niranjan M. Shah, Madhav Singh Parihar, Vera Andreeva, Gregory and Laurie Wood, and Jessleen and Mini Kanwal for their interest and constant support that helped in getting this book finished.

To all of our pets and the wildlife around us that inspired this book. And to our parents who encouraged us to indulge in and pursue our interests.