Scientists have finally figured out everyone’s question on our canine best friends: why are their noses always cold?
Finally, we have the answer we always needed about our furry friends. While speculations have always surrounded their wee noses, scientists from Hungary and Sweden have now discovered that dogs’ noses are always a tad colder as they serve as ultra-sensitive detectors.
In a report published in Scientific Reports, the Hungarian and Swedish scientists reveal an experiment that allowed them to understand just how their noses work.
After discovering that when the environmental air is of 30C, a dog’s nose measures to be about five degrees colder. Whereas, if the temperature of the environment is 0C, a dog’s rhinarium – the top bit of their nose – will be 8C. These both factor out at being consistently 15C…
From these observations, the scientists figured a hypothesis that the nose must serve as a sensory receptor, and that has been proven correct by the following experiment.
A research team in Sweden’s Lund University and a research team in Hungary’s Eotvos Lorand University performed a study on three dogs, named Kevin, Delfi and Charlie.
These three good dogs were trained to identify which objects were heated 12 degrees warmer than room temperature from others that were identical in shape.
The study reported that all three dogs were able to successfully follow the double-blind experiment, and identify the correct objects that had been slightly warmed.
The most interesting part, is that when the scientists delved deeper into their studies by employing functional magnetic resonance on 13 awake dogs, they were able to detect increased neural response of the dogs towards slightly warmed objects – temperature differences that human hands themselves could not feel if not directly touching the heated objects .
So, there you go, another miraculous wonder that dogs can do! If you’re interested in both science and dogs, read about how the police is testing robot dogs to join the force here.
