5 ms·
Can Archaeology Dogs Smell Ancient Time?
- goldenkey 6y agoStill pretty silly that our phones don't have artificial noses on them for at least things like Carbon Monoxide and other easy to detect noxious gases. I am really glad Apple put an EKG into their Apple Watch without being prompted by competition. Many people have been helped immensely by discovering underlying heart conditions through it.
- lostgame 6y agoI have minor heart issues and I can honestly say I feel much, much safer wearing my Apple Watch around than without. It doubles as a medic-alert bracelet! I’m deathly allergic to penicillin, so again; simple things like that are just core parts of my life now.
- krisoft 6y ago"I am really glad Google put an EKG into their Apple Watch without being prompted by competition." I'm confused. Which company put what in which product?
- goldenkey 6y agoApple I meant, just fixed it. Mind slip, thanks for alerting me.
- jfengel 6y agoRight now an artificial nose is kind of a big device, about the size of a microwave oven or bigger. [1] You could build much smaller devices to detect particular molecules, but even a CO detector is about the size of your thumb. And it would take quite a lot of such devices to even begin to describe a real smell. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chromatography%E2%80%93mass_spectrometry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chromatography%E2%80%93mas...
- sithadmin 6y agoInterestingly, some Apple devices are (inadvertent) helium detectors: https://9to5mac.com/2018/10/31/helium-bricks-iphone-apple-watch/ https://9to5mac.com/2018/10/31/helium-bricks-iphone-apple-wa...
- leephillips 6y agoThat’s an interesting story. It sounds like a mass hallucination until you learn the physical reason for the phenomenon.
- cabite 6y agoThis makes sense. My dog spends considerably more time sniffing ground from a pavement renewal project nearby. She may be sniffing smells that were left here decades ago ! Also, a few months ago, an article was shared on HN explaining how dogs are able to detect heat with their nose. And this makes sense too: whenever I shower, my dog starts sniffing and scratching walls near the shower stall, where the pipe is. I bet she could sense a rat hidden inside a wall or in the ground. Predator™.
- winrid 6y agoOr you have a leak! :)
- Whitespace 6y agoWithout reading the article, I would answer a resounding "yes." Dogs can be trained to smell _cancer._ That is mind-bogglingly cool.
- GuiA 6y agoThere are anecdotal reports of doctors/nurses able to pick up certain typical "illness smells" from their patients. Not sure if it's ever been studied more in depth.
- klyrs 6y agoJoy Milne has gained some recognition for being able to smell Parkinson's, and that seems to getting some serious attention. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/8202745...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- vanderZwan 6y agoOn a similar note: in "Prehistorik Road Trip", paleontologist Eileen Grogan remarks that shark fossils have a very characteristic smell. That's a human nose, talking about 323 million year old fossils. Dogs being able to detect much more recent things does not surprise me at all [0] https://www.pbs.org/video/welcome-to-fossil-country-mpoq6h/ https://www.pbs.org/video/welcome-to-fossil-country-mpoq6h/ (around the 18:50 mark)