Moment of Science from FE520 Classroom

[Alana McGee]

Hey guys!

I am loving this class and am completely fascinated by dogs and their ability to detect things and let us know about them. I am also a giant nerd and love to learn and explore new topics. I thought it might be fun to have a thread where we could post interesting articles, videos, or book that we find or already know about – For example I know I am on the look out for a few starter books about scent and detection etc.

To start us off, here is a crazy article about scent receptors in humans!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/science/smell…tml?ref=science&_r=2

I wonder what the implication is for dogs and other creatures that rely on their olfactory receptors

[Alana McGee]

I believe Lucy Newton is having a Fenzi class on Scent theory next term. (Part of Nosework classes)I will be signing up at bronze level, perhaps silver so I can ask questions.

I also am very interested in social skills, believe dogs far exceed ours when it comes to “reading” and responding to interpersonal signals. So am interested in that area, as well.

GREAT IDEA, Shannon!!!

[Alana McGee]

I saw that scent theory class for next term too, I am also thinking about taking it. If only there weren’t so many amazing courses offered every term. I know how many I can realistically keep up with, but I always want to do just one more 🙂

[Alana McGee]

I keep adding classes and as long as I take one, they are in my library waiting for me.

Next term, I will take scent theory at bronze level, along with Truffle #3 at gold.

It just occurred to me that if several of us took that at bronze level, we could share what our dogs were doing with each other.

[Alana McGee]

Thanks for starting this topic Shannon! I love it! i have a stash of odd science articles tucked away via bookmarks, I’ll take a gander through when I get a sec and see what to share!

[Alana McGee]

Shannon, Sandra, Everyone,

I just was added to the ‘Fenzi Students’ facebook page. I can see that Lois, Rachel and Alana are already members. Since this is my first class, I did not know it existed. I also see that for many classes a student will set up a private facebook page for the bronze or all students so they can work together. I’m sure this would be helpful if you take bronze for the Scent Theory or other classes.

[Alana McGee]

Infection Detection Dogs – how cool is this!

This strikes me as incredible “It is interesting that of the few patients misidentified as being infected when they were not, 18 percent displayed the infection within three months, while only 3.5 percent of those at the dogs declared infection free did so.”

I am super curious as to what the dog is alerting on, is there some predisposition to C. diff that the dog is picking up and alerting on. It would be really interesting to track those “false alerts” for longer than three months to see if the patients do develop the infection at a later date.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corn…ction-detection-dogs

Dogs are amazing 🙂

[Alana McGee]

When someone has an infection or septicemia and it does not show up readily in blood work, the dr will usually order blood draws every 1/2 hour or hour and each blood draw will be from multiple sites. Even then the infection, bacteria, or whatever might not show up. But it seems if the infection is there, it is causing chemical changes and the dog could smell them.

[Alana McGee]

That is really interesting, Annie. I had no idea!

[Author]

Posts