“I was asked if, as an Ig Nobel laureate myself, I thought this recent Cambridge sheep study would be a contender for an Ig Nobel award, the prize for science that “first makes you laugh, then makes you think”. Celebrity-spotting sheep might sound funny but the science involved in this study actually isn’t sniggerable.” So writes Catherine Douglas […]
Tag: cows
Recognizing cattle from their nose prints
Although computer-assisted facial-recognition techniques for cow-indentification are making considerable progress (see previous), there are other ways of doing so – nose prints for example. Researchers Ary Noviyanto and Aniati Murni Arymurthy of the Faculty of Computer Science, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia, outline the details in a comprehensve report for the journal Computers and Electronics in […]
Fujitsu promotes the Internet of Cows
Fujitsu devised this promotional video for what it calls “the Internet of Cows”: . Fujitsu’s more formal name for the innovation is “ox walk SaaS“. Fujitsu’s promotional activities turn on the phrase “I am the connected cow”, as you can see in this photo: Michael Byrne wrote a short essay about this cow news, for Motherboard. […]
Bells and No-bells (alpine cattle study)
Dairy cows, particularly in alpine regions (Switzerland, Austria &etc) are often seen (and heard) wearing bells. See photo: Although it’s traditional to fit such cows with bells, a question can, and indeed has, been asked : ‘Do Bells Affect Behaviour and Heart Rate Variability in Grazing Dairy Cows?’ Answers are provided in a 2015 PLoS […]
Podcast 29: Eat a shrew, and an epidemic of penile amputations
The secret of why onions make people cry; the scientist who ate and excreted a shrew; the one-armed man who was arrested for applauding; the question of when cows lie down and stand up; and surgical management of an epidemic of penile amputations in Siam; and a cat unexpectedly taking over the podcast — all these all […]
Can you train a cow when/where to wee?
The research team that once looked into the question “Does water or blowing air stimulate Canadian cows to defecate?” has now tried to teach calves when and where to wee, to see if it could be done. Here’s their new study: “Operant conditioning of urination by calves,” Alison Vaughan, Anne Marie de Passillé, Joseph Stookey, and […]
“Is Death Bad for a Cow?”
Professor Ben Bradley is chair of the Department of Philosophy at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, US. The professor asks the question “Is Death Bad for a Cow?” In fact he has asked several times – once at West Virginia University, US, in 2007, and again at the University of Reading, UK, in 2008, then at […]
German veterinary scientists deploy sauerkraut
This study explores the effects of saurkraut juice, and other substances, on cows: “Oral Application of Charcoal and Humic acids to Dairy Cows Influences Clostridium botulinum Blood Serum Antibody Level and Glyphosate Excretion in Urine,” H.A. Gerlach, Gerlach, W. Schrödl, B. Schottdorf, and S. Haufe, Journal of Clinical Toxicology, vol. 4, no. 186 (2014): 2161-0495. […]
Technical note: Evaluation of odor from…
Today’s Technical Note of the Day is: “Technical note: Evaluation of odor from vaginal discharge of cows in the first 10 days after calving by olfactory cognition and an electronic device,” I. Sannmann, O. Burfeind, V. Suthar, A. Bos, M. Bruins, W. Heuwieser , Journal of Dairy Science, epub June 28, 2013. The authors are […]
Further cow magnetic alignment findings
There are further findings in the ongoing international detective effort to understand the extent to which cows are inclined to align themselves more or less magnetically. A new study presents details: “Cattle on pastures do align along the North-South axis, but the alignment depends on herd density,” Pavel Slaby, Kateřina Tomanova, M. Vacha, Journal of Comparative […]