Dog noses detect heat, the world faces coronavirus, and scientists search for extraterrestrial life
On this week’s show, Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how dogs’ cold noses may be able to sense warm bodies. Read the research. International News Editor Martin Enserink shares the latest from our reporters covering coronavirus. And finally, from a recording made at this year’s AAAS annual meeting, host Meagan Cantwell talks with Jill Tarter, chair emeritus at the SETI Institute, about the newest technologies being used to search for alien life, what a positive signal would look like, and how to inform the public if extraterrestrial life ever were detected. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF).
Probing the secrets of the feline mind and how Uber and Lyft may be making traffic worse
Dog cognition and social behavior have hogged the scientific limelight for years—showing in study after study that canines have social skills essential to their relationships with people. Cats, not so much. These often-fractious felines tend to balk at strange situations—be they laboratories, MRI machines, or even a slightly noisy fan. Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss several brave research labs that have started to work with cats on their terms in order to show they have social smarts comparable to dogs. So far, the results suggest that despite their different ancestors and paths to domestication, cats and dogs have a lot more in common then we previously thought. Also this week, host Meagan Cantwell speaks with Greg Erhardt, assistant professor of civil engineering at University of Kentucky in Lexington about the effect of ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft on traffic in San Francisco, California. His group’s work showed that when comparing 2010 and 2016 traffic, these services contributed significantly to increases in congestion in a large growing city like San Francisco, but questions still remain about how much can be generalized to other cities or lower density areas. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download the transcript (PDF) Ads on this show: KiwiCo Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Thomas Hawk/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]
Dog Training For Dummies, 4th Edition
| Make your buddy a top dog for life, be your Best Friend’s “Friend,” by training together. Obedience training is one of the most important aspects of raising a dog. In fact, a well-trained dog is a FREE dog! Why? Because a trained dog requires fewer restrictions. The more reliable the dog, the more freedom he is given. Dog Training for Dummies shows dog owners how to select the right training method for their puppy, adult, or senior dog. Whether you Read More... |
Scientist Explains Why Dogs Can Smell Better Than Robots
Dogs can smell explosives like landmines, and detect medical conditions including seizures, diabetes, and many forms of cancer -- with up to 98% accuracy. Inventor Andreas Mershin wants to replicate that -- and put a nose in every cell phone. WIRED's Emily Dreyfuss spoke with Mershin to find out why that's easier said than done, and to learn what building a robotic nose has taught us about smell.
Dogme uncut : Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterburg, and the gang that took on Hollywood / Jack Stevenson
Dogs Don’t Like You Doing These 8 Things
There are ample things you're doing right now that's driving your dog nuts. And the most ironical part? You might not even be aware of doing them. Sure, your dog is your best friend. And they even tolerate your or
Pet owners share heartwarming transformation shots of emaciated rescue dogs
Dog lovers from across the globe have posted in BeforeNAfterAdoption thread on Reddit - sharing harrowing photos of their pets looking malnourished, emaciated and terrified before being adopted.
Dogs destined to be EATEN in South Korea are saved following months spent in cages
An animal charity mission to save around 70 dogs from the meat farm in Hongseong finally got underway after Humane Society International worked with the farmer.
Dog the Bounty Hunter breaks down as he describes wife Beth's last words before her death
Speaking outside his home in Hawaii on Wednesday afternoon, Chapman held back tears as he told of how he held Beth and called out Jesus' name as she asked him to repeat it again and again.
Dog wears sunglasses as it rides a miniature car through a marketplace in Thailand
Footage shows the canine appearing to drive an open-top black-and-white vehicle as it slowly passes stalls in Chiang Mai, in the north of the country - much to the bemusement of shoppers.
Dogwood isn't just super easy to care for says Monty Don
Monty Don shares his advice for thriving dogwood. The British gardening expert says the plant will grow almost anywhere but likes moist, rich soil in full sun best.
Dog's wacky mane leaves adoring fans comparing him to the likes of 'Rod Stewart' and 'Tina Turner'
Tracy Burgess, 48, from Sheffield, told how her Springer spaniel Teddy, five, has gone viral after his wacky mane left adoring fans saying he looks like Tina Turner and Rod Stewart.
Dog saved after losing nose due to brutal attack from children
Kasey Carlin, from Brighton, told This Morning how she rescued Maggie, 5, from Lebanon after she was shot, and Millie from Russia, who lost her nose after being brutally attacked by children.
Dog owner lets Rhodesian Ridgeback lick canned cheese off his BALD HEAD so he can trim his claws
Greg Lee, 41, from Williamsburg, Virginia, was fed up with battling his 6.5 stone Rhodesian Ridgeback Jax every fortnight to cut his nails so started squirting canned cheese on his head.
Dog killed man a week after police handed it back to owner
Leeds Crown Court heard that David Ellam, 52, died after he was attacked by a the dog called Alex. Pictured is the dog's owner Aaron Joseph, who denies being in control of a dangerous dog.
Meet the #dogsonthetube Instagram stars on London's tube
Dog lovers and owners across London have taken to Instagram to record the lives of the canine commuters who brighten up their journeys under the hashtags #mindthedogs and #dogsonthetube
Dogs understand what we say and how we say it: study
London: Dog owners, take note! Your pet pooch may not only comprehend the words that you speak, but also how you say them, a new study suggests.
Researchers have found that dogs have the ability to distinguish vocabulary words and the intonation of human speech through brain regions similar to those that humans use.
Representational Picture
Attila Andics from Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary said that vocabulary learning "does not appear to be a uniquely human capacity that follows from the emergence of language, but rather a more ancient function that can be exploited to link arbitrary sound sequences to meanings."
Words are the basic building blocks of human languages, but they are hardly ever found in nonhuman vocal communications.
Intonation is another way that information is conveyed through speech, where, for example, praises tend to be conveyed with higher and more varying pitch. Humans understand speech through both vocabulary and intonation.
Andics and colleagues explored whether dogs also depend on both mechanisms.
Dogs were exposed to recordings of their trainers' voices as the trainers spoke to them using multiple combinations of vocabulary and intonation, in both praising and neutral ways.
For example, trainers spoke praise words with a praising intonation, praise words with a neutral intonation, neutral words with a praising intonation, and neutral words with neutral intonation.
Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyse the dogs' brain activity as the animals listened to each combination.
The results show that, regardless of intonation, dogs process vocabulary, recognising each word as distinct, and further, that they do so in a way similar to humans, using the left hemisphere of the brain.
Also like humans, the researchers found that dogs process intonation separately from vocabulary, in auditory regions in the right hemisphere of the brain.
Lastly, and also like humans, the team found that the dogs relied on both word meaning and intonation when processing the reward value of utterances.
Thus, dogs seem to understand both human words and intonation. The researchers noted that it is possible that selective forces during domestication could have supported the emergence of the brain structure underlying this capability in dogs, but, such rapid evolution of speech-related hemispheric asymmetries is unlikely.
Humans are only unique in their ability to invent words, they said. The research appears in the journal Science.
Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by mid-day online. This story is taken from a syndicated feed & is published on AS IS basis.
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Dogs born in summers more likely to suffer heart disease
Representational Image
Owing to a higher level of outdoor air pollution during summers, dogs born during this time are more likely to be at higher risk of heart disease, according to a study.
For both dogs and humans, outside air pollution during pregnancy and at the time of birth appears to play a role in later development of heart disease.
Overall, dogs have a 0.3 to 2 per cent risk of developing heart disease depending on breed, but among those that are genetically predisposed to the heart disease, the birth month difference in risk was found to be marginal.
However, breeds not genetically predisposed to the disease, such as Norfolk terrier, Berger Picard, American Staffordshire terrier, English toy spaniel, Bouvier des flandres, Border terrier and Havanese were also found to be at highest risk.
This suggests that the effect supports an environmental mechanism, the researchers said, in a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, also supports earlier findings in humans pointing to the role of early gestational exposure to fine air particulates and increased risk of heart disease later in life.
"It's important to study dogs because the canine heart is a remarkably similar model to the human cardiovascular system," said Mary Regina Boland, Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the US.
"Also, humans and dogs share their lives together and are exposed to similar environmental effects, so seeing this birth season-cardiovascular disease relationship in both species illuminates mechanisms behind this birth-season disease relationship," Boland added.
Because dogs' pregnancies are shorter than humans (lasting only 2 months), pollution as a possible mechanism is still thought to be through the mother's inhalation of air pollution effecting the uterine environment, which in turn affects the developing cardiovascular system of the baby or puppy, the study showed.
For the new study, the team examined 129,778 canines encompassing 253 different breeds.
The research team found that risk climbs to the greatest level in dogs born in July, who have a 74 per cent greater risk of heart disease than would typically be expected.
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Doggo Feets Running For The Doggo Treats (34 Dog Memes)
Can't spell doggo without 'good'!
It's a beautiful day for frolicking in the dog park! Just kidding, no one is allowed out and we've been cooped up indoors for months now, and others for way longer... but where is your imagination? Regardless of our current whereabouts, one thing we can always count on is doggo memes to lift our spirits!
Every week we have fresh hot doggo memes delivered straight to your face and to your heart (insert loud 'aww' sound here.)
So take a moment to sit back and relax, and enjoy all the good bois and girls this list has to offer! And just in case you're having a ruff day and need an extra lift, check out these doggo memes -- that should cure just about anything.
dog pocket
The Worst Things For Sale is Drew's blog. It updates every day. Subscribe to the Worst Things For Sale RSS!
dog peel
The Worst Things For Sale is Drew's blog. It updates every day. Subscribe to the Worst Things For Sale RSS!
