Earthing mats (a.k.a. ElectroStatic Discharge – Safe Mats) are commonplace in the electronics industry, where sensitive components need to be protected against potentially damaging rogue electrostatic discharges (ESDs). Not so common, though, for protecting furry pets in the home. But this may now have changed. Inventors Thomas J. Gaskill (Haddonfield, NJ), and James S. Gatti […]
Tag: pet
Identifying one’s pet(s) by how they smell
It’s (more or less) a given that dogs can reliably identify individual humans by their smell. But what about the other way around? To find out, Dr Deborah Wells and Professor Peter Hepper of the Canine Behaviour Centre, School of Psychology, at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, conducted a set of experiments. A 1m square blue […]
Multifunction baby carrier exercise device (new patent)
“The care of a newborn baby is virtually a 24 hour a day job, leaving very little time for new parents to engage in traditional exercise. The lack of exercise runs contrary to traditional and prevailing medical opinions.” Fortunately, inventor Scott Krass of San Diego, California, has invented (and just received a US patent for) […]
“If it smells like meat…” a ‘Rule of Thumb’ for dogs
Although you might think (as many have) that dogs have a strong preference for eating meat, things may not be quite so clearcut. Authors Anandarup Bhadra and Anindita Bhadra of The Dog Lab (doggedly observing dogs at the Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, India), propose instead that dogs’ […]
‘Social jetlag’ between dogs and humans across Europe
“People choosing a pet have a number of factors to consider. The important one is whether a pet can synchronize with humans in sleep timing.“ – explain a pan-European [Germany | Poland | Spain] research team in a 2015 paper for the scholarly journal Time & Society. The investigators reasoned that pet dogs and their […]