LABS ON ICE: Jamberry is one of about a dozen dogs that marine biologist Brendan Kelly has trained to sniff out ringed seals hidden under the Beaufort Sea ice. Kelly takes the dogs out on the ice and follows them on snow machines as they track the scent of seals beneath the vast snow-covered plains.
Image: Brendan Kelly
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Top 10 Dogs of Science
Surely if a dog is man's best friend, then dogs must also be the best buds of scientists and their pursuit of knowledge. Consider this statistic: assuming that dog ownership among scientists mirrors that of the U.S. population at large, there are just over half a million scientists who are dog owners in the U.S. alone.
Now, if those dog-friendly households each keep 1.7 dogs under their roofs (like in the general populace), that means there are just shy of one million scientist-owned dogs in the States. (Just to be clear, there are more researchers with doggies than residents of San Francisco.) Small wonder then that their paw prints are trampled all over the pursuit of science.
So without further ado, meet the top 10 dogs of science, exemplars of how our beloved canines chased the elusive ball of scientific discovery and brought it back to the feet of their human colleagues for the betterment of all—sometimes sacrificing themselves in the process.
View a slide show of the Top 10 Dogs of Science
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16 Comments
Add CommentLaika was the first dog in orbit not in space; there were two other USSR dogs on sub-orbital flights before Laika (and unlike Laika they survived return). Also there were a number of other insect and mice payloads to reach space (non-orbital) before Laika.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks. We have updated the story to correct this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou're equating Dr Kevorkian with Dr. Mengele. Shame on you!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou're equating Dr. Kevorkian with Dr. Mengele. Shame on you!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSemiahmoo: Where did you get the name Dr. Mengele? Dr. Mengele is not mentioned in any of the 10 slides. Dr. Kevorkian was a reference made against Ivan Pavlov (slide #2).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe reason Pavlov and Kevorkian are similar is both men are sadistic. Kevorkian did not consult with the doctors of the people he set up to commit suicide. Kevorkian only acted on the word of ill people. As a doctor Kevorkian should have known that medicated people do not always have the best sense of what is real and what is not. Could some of the ill people really have been in pain or did they just think they were in pain, possibly do to medication or psychological sympathy pain. Kevorkian could not know the answers to that question, unless he consulted with the numerous doctors that originally diagnosed the ill people Kevorkian set up to die. Kevorkian's failure to interact with the doctors that were originally linked to each of the Kevorkian suicides, BEFORE going through with the suicides, is what constitutes Kevorkian as a "serial killer" in the minds of many people. "First do no harm." and "Better safe, than sorry." are two quotes that should have been used by Kevorkian, before going through with the suicides. If the people were really terminally ill or in horrible pain, why did Kevorkian not get over-whelming evidence of such by several doctors before he set the suicides in motion? Answer: Kevorkian is a sadist and did not want to be stopped.
Pavlov was the same way only towards animals. How did humans benefit by knowing that a dog salivates when trained by a bell and food to do so? Answer: Nothing was life-saving beneficial from any of Pavlov's animal experiments! Pavlov and Kevorkian both just wanted to inflict pain and death on living beings!! Pavlov and Kevorkian both were or are demented people who should never be given any honors!
Pavlov was an idiot, creating attention for himself at the cost (painful) of the dogs. I'm betting God had a serious chat with him when he entered the 'Gates'. I once did research paper on "The Correlation Between Animal Abuse and Human Abuse." My finding was that a person who could abuse an animal was also likely to abuse a human (especially elder and child abuse). My heart goes out to the poor human beings surrounding Pavlov.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPavlov was an idiot, creating attention for himself at the cost (painful) of the dogs. I'm betting God had a serious chat with him when he entered the 'Gates'. I once did research paper on "The Correlation Between Animal Abuse and Human Abuse." My finding was that a person who could abuse an animal was also likely to abuse a human (especially elder and child abuse). My heart goes out to the poor human beings surrounding Pavlov.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLet's not forget that this isn't just in the past. A mind-boggling amount of the current research using animals (much of which is funded by government/tax sources) is redundant, useless, and indefensibly cruel. How many animals does it take for us to prove alcohol/tobacco/drugs are harmful to living beings? And the Animal Welfare Act doesn't even classify birds and rodents as animals....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJuvenile diabetes (aka type 1) was a fatal disease up until 1921 when Canadian physicians Banting and Best demonstrated that laboratory dogs with their pancreases (and therefore their insulin-producing beta cells) removed, could be kept alive via injections of insulin that had been extracted from the pancreases of cattle and pigs. I've lived nearly 50 years longer than I other would have, thanks to Banting, Best, and their dogs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPavlov's studies did much to elucidate mechanisms of learning that hold in all species that have been examined - nonhuman and human alike. His work with dogs paved the way for current research that sheds light on brain mechanisms responsible for human memory, both in the healthy brain and the brain afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. Pavlov was so successful precisely because he cared deeply about the health and well-being of his dogs. Visitors to the site of his laboratory will see the monument to his dogs that he built with his own funds. One of his lasting legacies, beyond the principles of learning that he discovered, was the importance of the psychological and physical health of the animals to the quality of his data.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI love staffordshire terriers, they are beautiful, friendly, and just awesome looking! <a href="http://www.electroniccigarettesinc.com">electronic cigarette</a>
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat about the border-collie, named Rico? I think this dog have been reported as the most clever dog ever, and in the behavioural point of views, I think Rico was the smartest dog.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNadav Levy, Israel
What about the Border-Collie, named Rico? In my opinion he have been recorded by sience magazine as the smartest dog in global point of view.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNadav Levy, Israel
Can you please say "killed" instead of "chloroformed", please?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy are you attacking Pavlov while the "scientists" who sent Laika into space to die of heat exhaustion and stress are presumably 'animal lovers'?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe experiment proved absolutely nothing and was just the sadistic sacrifice of an animal's life.
All those that object any kind of animal research, I wonder if they would hold the same opinion if they or one of their kin were diagnosed with a terminal, incurable disease. Would they be brave enough to choose death over the glimmer of hope offered by extensive tests of various pharmaceuticals on animals?
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