Dogs are usually considered to be trustworthy pets, but a research (or perhaps research-like) study sheds light on dogs’ ability to use deceptive-like (ore perhaps deceptive) behaviour to get their way. The article “Deceptive-like behaviour in dogs” explains an experiment where …dogs had the chance to choose, in the presence of either a cooperative or […]
About: Jim Eakins
Posts by Jim Eakins:
Hand cooling from illusion not linked to change in body ownership
Researchers from Utrecht University have an update on temperatures in hands that may, or may not, belong to you. Their paper, “No consistent cooling of the real hand in the rubber hand illusion,” gives an example of the importance of distinguishing body ownership: “Consider a simple task such as walking towards another person –say, this […]
Sleep to forget teacher, or sleep to remember grandmother?
It seems that a lack of sleep may prevent the brain from forgetting unimportant information. A lack of sleep may also prevent the brain from remembering important information. How can scientists make sense of this seemingly-nonsensical seeming-contradiction? Imagine you just met your child’s teacher, who is named Gwen. The name Gwen, however, is firmly associated […]
Modelling heat loss from a semi-spherical cow udder
Theoretical physicists are sometimes accused of making over-simplifications for mathematical models. This has lead to many variations on the spherical cow story, where a physicist claims to be able to cure a sick cow, but only if it is a spherical cow in a vacuum. Oddly, most iterations of this tale ignore heat radiated from […]