Science Alert: We Now Know When Dog Brains Shrank – And It Might Be Our Fault
Dogs have far smaller brains than their wolf relatives, and now a study led by researchers in France has plotted a timeline for when this shrinking – sometimes considered a mark of domestication – might’ve begun.
Sparky says that his brain shrank when he met Chumley.
Scientists say that dog brains shrank during the Neolithic period, at least 5000 years ago when humans started farming and domesticating animals.
CNN: Trump accelerates research on psychedelic treatments
President Donald Trump on Saturday signed an executive order aimed at encouraging expanded research into psychedelic drugs, part of a broader push to explore emerging mental health treatments.
This may be the Trumpiest news ever.
Activists Try to Remove 2,000 Beagles from Wisconsin Research Facility
On Saturday, April 18, at 8:52 am, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office responded to approximately 1000 activists converging on Ridglan Farms in the town of Blue Mounds.
This looks like a war zone. I adore beagles, but these chaotic people are violent thugs. If they had succeeded, they weren’t going to flee the scene with a beagle under each arm. The beagles would have been released into the wild to be eaten by coyotes or face some other grim death.
7-ton asteroid lights up Northeast Ohio skies, fragments above Medina County
The boom was loud, deep and short. A crash or bang from the highway wouldn’t be such a deep bass sound. With the recent wind, trees have been falling over, but that would be cracking noise that would last longer.
I was reading this dog research about genetics. I was impressed with how the questionnaire asks people to physically describe their dogs.
This graphic about chest shape is crude, but effective.
Ars Technica: Why is my dog like this? Current DNA tests won’t explain it to you.
Another disappointing article about dog research.
The dog shown in the photo above is a stock photo chosen for this article. To me, the photo says,
“Hi, my name is Patches! They found me at a pet sematary. This paw is bigger than my other paws, and my ears don’t seem to be related. I look to be patched together from a bunch of dogs, so they call me Patches! Can I take your kids for a walk over to the edge of the forest? You don’t have to come along.”
SPACE: Will Europe’s flagship space science missions survive NASA’s budget cuts?
Flagship European space science missions conducted in collaboration with NASA face a possible combined funding shortfall of nearly $2 billion due to budget cuts put forward by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. The European Space Agency hopes its member states will come to the rescue.
Europe’s flagship space science missions may be worthwhile, but they aren’t ours, so why are we funding them? It’s only about twenty bucks per American taxpayer, but do that for 10,000 other foreign agencies and projects, and it starts to add up.
Thinking about the green ball mystery, I took some photos of the ball pit this morning before sunrise.
Nasa plans first crewed Moon mission in 50 years for February 2026
Maybe there is too much going on or it’s the fracturing of news media, but there are big things happening that people aren’t talking about.
In four months, humans are going back to the Moon. The Artemis 2 mission is to perform a lunar orbit, no landing, similar to Apollo 9 in 1968. Apollo 9 is the mission that yielded the moving “Earth Rise” photograph.
Why Leaving the Leaves Is Better for Your Yard
It’s time to rake your lawn when the NYT starts posting articles with biologists explaining why you shouldn’t rake up the fallen leaves.
That campaign has spread awareness that fallen leaves provide overwintering habitat for many ecologically critical organisms. But that’s not all they do. Now, we can look at the consequences of leaf removal by the numbers, data that makes a more nuanced case for a gentler approach that supports plants and soil, and also offers insights into the most effective how-to practices to employ.
I don’t know where these eggheads live, but their houses don’t have the suburban green carpets that the rest of us envy.
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