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Bunsen and BEAKER

Aug 25 • 8 tweets • 4 min read

Bunsen is a big lovable bear.
He wouldn’t hesitate to attempt to rescue anyone he cares about.
Science has concluded your dog would too.
Let’s all have a good cry over
The Super Pawesome Science Thread!
#TSPST

There are going to be variations in how much “rescue” a dog has in them. If dadguy fell and broke his ankle while Beaker was digging or hunting, he might get ignored. If it was MommyFav and Bunsen was around, Bunsen would Kool-Aid OH YEAH man himself through a fence to help.

Science looked at how dogs WOULD react to their human if they were in distress and the conclusion was wholesome and amazing.
There is surprising little research done on this, so a team at Arizona State University set out to get the data.

60 pet dogs with ZERO rescue training were recruited into the study. This was important as the question asked was: Do dogs have the innate desire to rescue their human?
The dog’s human was put in a box and the human began to cry for help.

The box had a door that could easily be opened by the dog as well so there could be a success in “rescue”. Also the cries for help couldn’t use the dog’s name, this was so they could rule out the dog just following a command.
1/3 of the dogs successfully rescued their human.

Now 33% success rate may not sound great but most of the dogs WANTED to rescue the human but couldn’t get the door open.
A subset of the dogs good at problem solving were tested again and the rescue rate was in the high 80%. So the dogs WANTED to help, but not all could.

The dogs were NOT happy their person was trapped either. They were stressed out. Also, after repeated trials, the dogs didn’t get less stressed- they were worried each time their human was stuck.

What is so cool about this study is that is shows, even without training, dogs want to help. They may not know how, but they really want to stop their human from being in distress.
Once they got a bit of training, their success rate was fantastic.
See, we told you!
Happy tears.

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When we eat animals, it’s just second hand star power.

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The wolf and dog parted ways as soon as the first wolf decided humans weren’t dangerous. Since that point, humans have been shaping the ancient wolves into all the dogs on earth today. Tameness and obedience were selected. Along the way, cuteness tagged in.

Researchers from the University of Portsmouth looked at the facial muscles of wolves and compared it to the facial muscles of different breeds of dogs.
Nearly the entire face was identical….except for a couple really key differences.

Dog faces have special muscles which allow them to raise their eyebrows. Dogs ALSO uses these muscles considerably more when interacting with humans as proven in previous research. So not only do dogs HAVE eyebrow muscles, they USE the muscles when interacting with humans.

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Aug 22

Did you know that plants could grow on the moon, in the moon dirt?
Well, sort of.
Check out the fascinating story on The Super Awesome Science Thread!
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HOWEVER, scientists DID successfully grow stuff in moon dirt. Moon dirt is also called regolith, and some was brought back by the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions. The scientists used only a teeny tiny amount of the soil, 0.3g, and planted a hardy mustard plant.

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There are 7 main reasons.
Let’s find out on The Super Awesome Science Thread.
#TSAT

1. Nearly 100,000 years ago ancient cats watched the advanced primates who scurried around the Middle East with a mild curiosity, but stayed out of their way. These primates were smart and could catch and eat them. It would have stayed this way except for this: grain.

2. The end of the ice age allowed humans to turn from sketchy hunters into farmers. Still cats were wary. The grain and crops humans grew that was stored for later became a target for an annoying creature from India. The house mouse. The plot thickens.

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Someone needs to make an app where if you say, “I feel sad”, you get sent a picture of a dog or cat instantly.

And it overrides your phone so you can’t do anything else until you stare at it and say something like “oh who’s a precious little cutie.” or something.

Like you can’t use twitter, or your mail or anything. Also if you are on desktop, it does the same thing. It doesn’t matter if you are in a meeting or giving a presentation at the UN, you have to look at the dog or cat and say something like “what a pretty kitty” to unlock it

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Living with dogs may protect kids from developing a disease later in life.
Find out more on
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#TSAST

The disease in question is Crohn’s Disease (CD). CD causes inflammatory bowel issues like pain, bloody diarrhea, fever, and other awfulness. It can also cause secondary issues like rashes and fatigue.
It’s nasty and if you suffer from it, we are so sorry.

Presented at Digestive Disease Week were findings that kids who lived with dogs (but not cats) had a more heathy gut outcomes, all of which protect against the onset of Crohn’s Disease.