Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

The Problem The more we know about animal behavior, the happier we can make our pets. Understanding behavior problems in cats and dogs also means that fewer animals will be given up or deemed “unadoptable.” But researchers in a lab don’t have access to your yellow Lab. “It is surprisingly difficult to study the behavior of pet dogs and cats because they spend most of their time in people’s houses where [scientists] can’t easily observe them,” says James Serpell, professor of tens of thousands of pet dogs, researchers can get an idea of typical dog behaviors and look for patterns. Last year, the team created a cat version, called Fe-BARQ. So far, citizen scientists have added more than 40,000 pets to the C-BARQ database, and over 70 published scientific studies…

When you pet your dog or snuggle with a purring cat, your body and brain calm down. Why? Scientists are studying the effects of human-animal interactions to try to find out. The Cuddle Chemical In the United States, more than two-thirds of families have pets. Researchers asked children about their most important relationships. Kids listed pets right along with their immediate family and best friends. And you may not be surprised at this finding: many kids rely more on their dogs for comfort than on their siblings. A hormone called oxytocin helps explain why. Hormones are substances our bodies create. That warm, fuzzy feeling that comes when you are safe and secure is from oxytocin. Imagine cuddling with your dog and staring into his soft brown eyes. You get a…

“What kind of dog is that?” It’s a question every mixed-breed dog owner gets. And many are happy to answer, whether it’s to say, “Pomeranian-schnauzer-rottweiler” or “bulldog-Lab,” or even just their best guess. However, according to research out of Arizona State University (ASU), humans are really bad at guessing the breed makeup of our beloved mutts. What’s more, doing so may actually hurt some shelter dogs’ chances to get adopted. “Shelter dogs are a lot more interesting and unique than we’ve ever given them credit for,” says Lisa Gunter, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at ASU. Along with Clive Wynne, she has conducted several studies on dog breed labeling. Their research shows that rushing to label mixed-breed dogs, especially non-purebred dogs, may not be a good idea.…

In 1983, archaeologists working on the island of Cyprus found something rather unusual. Buried in the remains of an ancient settlement, they uncovered the skeleton of a human being. This, of course, wasn’t all that odd. But what they found buried alongside these old bones made headlines: it was the jawbone of a small cat. In 2004, archaeologists discovered another human and cat buried together on the same island. The archaeologists dated these bones to around 9,500 years ago. This remarkable discovery became the oldest known example of a pet cat. So was that the first pet cat ever? Probably not. Although the Cyprus cat provided another piece of the puzzle, scientists still don’t know exactly when cats were turned into pets, or domesticated. The origins of the pet cat…

The game of billiards, or pool, is all about geometry. You line up your shot and strike the cue ball. It caroms off the billiard table’s wall and smacks into the target ball, which scoots across the table right into a pocket—if you get your angles right. An expert player can fi gure out exactly where the ball will go. Most times, the ball travels in a straight line until it hits a wall. When it bounces, it obeys a basic law of physics: the angle between the incoming ball’s path and the wall is the same as the angle of the outgoing ball’s path and the wall. That’s enough to predict the ball’s motion, no matter how many bounces it takes. Some mathematicians like to go further by imagining…

I started getting Muse in 2015, and I really love it. Please do not toss this into the FMP; place it gently on top because this package may contain thorium. As you can tell, I really like elements and compounds. Could you guys please do an article on them? It doesn’t matter if it’s short or tall, because an article is an article no matter how small. Did you guys know that the only letter not on the periodic table is the letter J? Also, the country Argentina is named after the element silver (symbol Ag), which is argentum in Latin. Thanks! —GABE H. / age 13 / Rocky River, Greater Cleveland, Cuyohauga County, Northeast Region, Ohio, Midwest, USA, Earth, Inner Planets, Solar System, Milky Way,…

SQUIRRELS CAN REMEMBER how to solve a puzzle nearly two years later. Th at’s what researchers found when they tested the memories of five squirrels in the lab. For an earlier study, the squirrels had learned to get hazelnuts out of a specially made box. They could see and smell the nuts inside, but couldn’t eat one unless they pushed or pulled on the right end of a lever. After that study, the squirrels didn’t see the puzzle box for 22 months. Then the researchers tested them on it again. The clever animals picked up right where they’d left off. They took only about three seconds to solve the puzzle—almost as fast as they’d been by the end of the first study. In the wild, squirrels use their smarts to…

Q: What would happen if meteors hit Earth? —Lizzie M., age 11, Pennsylvania A: You may have seen meteors fly into Earth’s atmosphere, in the form of shooting stars. Meteors are usually less than a few inches across, and the light you see is them burning up as they hit the resistance of the atmosphere. Less often, larger rocks called asteroids will fall toward Earth, but most of them break up and burn before landing too. (If any pieces hit the ground, those rocks are called meteorites.) For an asteroid to make it all the way to the ground in one piece, it would have to be roughly 100 feet (30 m) across or larger, says Paul Chodas, who monitors the asteroids that get close to Earth at NASA’s Jet…

He was leashed to a stake in the snow: a lanky white puppy, shaggy and damp. I sat and looked into his huge brown eyes. He lifted a paw and touched my arm. With that, I was rescued from being a dogless human. Bino was a 10-month-old Great Pyrenees, a huge sheepdog breed popular for its work guarding livestock. Volunteers rescued him from a “kill shelter” in Georgia and brought him to Connecticut for adoption just before Christmas. My daughter found him on Petfinder, a website that posts profiles of adoptable dogs and the rescue agencies providing foster homes. For a fee that covered his shots, transport, and food—and contributed to the rescue organization’s expenses—sweet Bino was ours. I loaded him into the back of my car. As we drove…

Lila Miller has worked at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) for 40 years. She started right after graduating from veterinary school and is now vice president of shelter medicine for the organization. She has spent much of her career caring for and teaching others how to care for dogs, cats, and other creatures at animal shelters. WHAT WAS YOUR JOB LIKE WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED WORKING AT THE ANIMAL SHELTER? There really wasn’t much medical care being provided. I was brought in to create a protocol [a standard procedure] for animals we were holding. First thing in the morning, I’d look at new arrivals to see if they needed immediate medical attention, then move on to treatments. I’d perform complete physical exams that were…

When animals get sick, they can’t tell us exactly how they’re feeling. When animals seem to experience emotional pain, it can be even harder to figure out what the problem is. Through careful observation, brain imaging, and experiments, researchers are learning that animals may suffer from some of the same emotional problems as humans. People who are overwhelmed by their feelings often get treatment from a psychiatrist, a medical doctor who specializes in mental health. But veterinarians may also offer therapy and medication for mental illness in pets. A Light Shone Down and Trumpets Played Nicholas Dodman began paying attention to the well-being of animals early in life. When he was growing up in England, his mother was his teacher. He recalls that she believed “that animals had thoughts and…

HAVE YOU EVER noticed that your cat sniffs to recognize you, instead of looking at your face? Or that sometimes your dog doesn’t notice a toy that’s right beside him on the lawn? Yet, by night, that same cat can navigate rooms that look totally dark to you. And your dog somehow always knows when a family member is arriving home. How do they do that? Pets live with us, in our world. But they experience that world very differently than we do. One reason is that these animals’ senses are so different from our own. If you could see, hear, and smell the world the way your dog or cat does, you’d understand more about why they act as they do. So let’s give that a try—by taking a…

HOW MANY steps did you take today? If you wear a fitness-tracking device such as a Fitbit, you know the answer. Fitness trackers help people set goals for physical activity. Reaching those goals helps them lose weight and stay healthy. But what if your dog is a little chubby? Never fear! Your pup can get his or her very own FitBark. Or PitPat. Or PetPace. These devices have more in common than silly names. They all help monitor a pet’s activity and health. Some also track location (in case the pet gets lost). Sounds great, but these devices cost up to $100 or even more. It may seem ridiculous to spend so much to track a dog’s day. It’s just sleep, play, eat, play some more, right? If you don’t…