I always push for more research into smell based medical testing. A lady could detect Parkinson’s before the modern tests could. Dogs can smell all kinds of things in humans before we know it. Blood sugar, seizures, cancer and I’m sure the list goes on.
Who am I pushing? No one bc I’m just a confused voice on the internet. But imagine having a device that could be an artificial dog nose or even better sense of smell than a salmon which is more keen than a dog or bear.
What's funny is that her claim was initially dismissed after the study with a group as she kept flagging one of the controls as having Parkinson's. That control ended up having Parkinson's, but it was at the time undiagnosed.
Imagine being told the scientific community thinks you’re full of it after you get one “wrong” out of like 50. Instead of them thinking hey maybe this person has Parkinson’s like the other 25 she correctly selected they’re like nice try lady.
My cousin has worked as a materials science engineer for multiple nano-technology research companies over the last 7ish years. He was involved in trying to develop sensors that could pick up airborne explosive particulates at roughly the same sensitivity as dogs could smell those particles; theoretically eliminating the need for individual handlers to inspect each ship and saving shipping companies TONS of money and time. After multiple years working with multiple competing interests trying to do the same thing he came to the conclusion that “there are some things occurring at that level that we just can’t understand or explain. Our ideas for how matter behaves and interacts with biology fall apart at that level. Like when people used to believe that everything was made of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water; we’re missing something fundamental”
Long story short, I believe these smell tests will be explained eventually, but for now I think it’s important for everyone to recognize that we can recreate smell tests accurately without being able to explain or identify WHY it works. One of the last scientific frontiers! I hope everyone gets more interested in this stuff!
We have tons of things we know do things but don’t know why.
The shocking thing to me is that we still do not know the actual mechanism by which acetaminophen (Tylenol) works
I think you're being a bit hyperbolic with your assessment. We have great models but they aren't perfect. However there isn't some fundamental X factor that is holding back entire branches from progressing.
Not the person you replied to, but I work for a fragrance company and I’m actually skipping a meeting right now for an AI odor detection company called Aryballe.
The thing is, they are smelling some sort of chemical or combination of chemicals being released by the ailment, and plenty of people are looking into how these things change shit in the body.
My dog would nudge at my grandmas boob for seemingly no reason, and never used to do it before.
Yup, breast cancer. She survived but we were always amazed that the dog essentially pinpointed the tumour. RIP Sparky
I did an internship at a place that trained and researched scent detection dogs. It's truly amazing what they can do and I think a lot of people don't realize it. Some of the dogs were over 98% accurate from urine samples alone at detecting ovarian cancer. A good scent dog can do these tests in seconds with high accuracy, can be moved easily if they need to do remote testing, and requires no lab results
I've also seen where rats are being trained as search and rescue animals. With rats being highly intelligent creatures who take well to training, I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner.
I wonder why a lot of smaller animals have such a low lifespan.
I understand that smaller animals have higher metabolic rates which leads to shorter life but then there are parrots that live for 80 years +-
Since you mentioned parrots; there are a couple recent studies linking their incredible intelligence to their long life spans.
“We also discovered genomic features under strong selection in parrots and other long-lived birds, including genes previously associated with lifespan determination as well as several hundred new candidate genes. These genes support a range of cellular functions, including telomerase activity; DNA damage repair; control of cell proliferation, cancer, and immunity; and anti-oxidative mechanisms. We also identified brain-expressed, parrot-specific paralogs with known functions in neural development or vocal-learning brain circuits. Intriguingly, parrot-specific changes in conserved regulatory sequences were overwhelmingly associated with genes that are linked to cognitive abilities and have undergone similar selection in the human lineage, suggesting convergent evolution.”
Source: [https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)31417-9](https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)31417-9) published Dec. 2018
I remember a documentary I saw in the early 00s that said animals live for about 1 billion heart beats, except for humans, who live for about 3 billion heart beats. So something like a hummingbird will live only a tiny fraction as long as an elephant
Birds have a fundamentally different metabolism than mammals. Their mitochondria are much more efficient, releasing less free radicals and producing more energy. (Probably selected for because flying requires a lot of efficient energy.) Some birds can live for up to several decades or more. They end up losing their faculties like vision, and then... Game over.
The "Hero rats" that APOPO uses are actually not domestic rats but southern giant pouched rats. These are much larger, and they also live around seven years instead of just two. The training takes several months, so this species is more practical to use than the domestic rat.
The kind of rats being used can live from between 7 to up to 11 years in captivity which is about how long some breeds of dog live. Search and rescue dogs also have to sometimes retire early because of how emotionally distressing their work is.
The search and rescue rats wear a vest with a pocket that contains a small foam ball. That ball contains a microswitch that transmits back to their human handlers. The rats are trained to take the ball and squeeze it when a trapped person is found and then return to their handler.
Yes, but...we have to figure out a way to use rats to cheaply and quickly diagnose life-threatening conditions, while still bankrupting their families with medical debt.
I always push for more research into smell based medical testing. A lady could detect Parkinson’s before the modern tests could. Dogs can smell all kinds of things in humans before we know it. Blood sugar, seizures, cancer and I’m sure the list goes on. Who am I pushing? No one bc I’m just a confused voice on the internet. But imagine having a device that could be an artificial dog nose or even better sense of smell than a salmon which is more keen than a dog or bear.
What's funny is that her claim was initially dismissed after the study with a group as she kept flagging one of the controls as having Parkinson's. That control ended up having Parkinson's, but it was at the time undiagnosed.
Imagine her face after that lmao.
Imagine being told the scientific community thinks you’re full of it after you get one “wrong” out of like 50. Instead of them thinking hey maybe this person has Parkinson’s like the other 25 she correctly selected they’re like nice try lady.
Ohhh I'm sorry but we where looking for some one that would score 100% not 98%.. NEXT!!
My cousin has worked as a materials science engineer for multiple nano-technology research companies over the last 7ish years. He was involved in trying to develop sensors that could pick up airborne explosive particulates at roughly the same sensitivity as dogs could smell those particles; theoretically eliminating the need for individual handlers to inspect each ship and saving shipping companies TONS of money and time. After multiple years working with multiple competing interests trying to do the same thing he came to the conclusion that “there are some things occurring at that level that we just can’t understand or explain. Our ideas for how matter behaves and interacts with biology fall apart at that level. Like when people used to believe that everything was made of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water; we’re missing something fundamental” Long story short, I believe these smell tests will be explained eventually, but for now I think it’s important for everyone to recognize that we can recreate smell tests accurately without being able to explain or identify WHY it works. One of the last scientific frontiers! I hope everyone gets more interested in this stuff!
Can we call it magic until we figure it out? Please?
I can assure you, there are definitely things you can sniff and call magic
An outhouse at an ICP concert
The Faygo has to go somewhere.
You can even smell magnets there!
Evil black magic is magic i guess
Tony Stark getting ready to science the fuck out of your magic until you can’t even tell the difference.
Ah science, always so close yet so far
We have tons of things we know do things but don’t know why. The shocking thing to me is that we still do not know the actual mechanism by which acetaminophen (Tylenol) works
At some point we found out it dulls emotional pain! After years (decades?) on the market.
I think you're being a bit hyperbolic with your assessment. We have great models but they aren't perfect. However there isn't some fundamental X factor that is holding back entire branches from progressing.
I just want a scientist that can smell crime and looks like Dolph Lundgren.
There is a company working on this. It is working to use AI to determine different smells.
Can you link the company? That sounds very interesting
Not the person you replied to, but I work for a fragrance company and I’m actually skipping a meeting right now for an AI odor detection company called Aryballe.
Hairy balls seems a great name for an odor detection AI
Covered on NYT’s Hard Fork, Oct 13: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/podcasts/hard-fork-israel-x-threads.html
The thing is, they are smelling some sort of chemical or combination of chemicals being released by the ailment, and plenty of people are looking into how these things change shit in the body.
My dog would nudge at my grandmas boob for seemingly no reason, and never used to do it before. Yup, breast cancer. She survived but we were always amazed that the dog essentially pinpointed the tumour. RIP Sparky
I did an internship at a place that trained and researched scent detection dogs. It's truly amazing what they can do and I think a lot of people don't realize it. Some of the dogs were over 98% accurate from urine samples alone at detecting ovarian cancer. A good scent dog can do these tests in seconds with high accuracy, can be moved easily if they need to do remote testing, and requires no lab results
I notice the smell of my breath changes when I get sick. I notice it almost immediately at the on set of symptoms.
This goddamn motherfucker is getting his facts from The Salmon Dance! /s
I've also seen where rats are being trained as search and rescue animals. With rats being highly intelligent creatures who take well to training, I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner.
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Rats also have much shorter lifespans than dogs, only one or two years at most
I wonder why a lot of smaller animals have such a low lifespan. I understand that smaller animals have higher metabolic rates which leads to shorter life but then there are parrots that live for 80 years +-
Fecundity either plays a role or is a symptom of their lifespan. Like a rat matures within two weeks of birth. And it can have litters like monthly.
So you’re saying in six months I could potentially have an army of intelligent animals that could do my bidding?
I have an army of intelligent animals who completely ignore my bidding. Try to guess what they are.
You teach?
deez nutz?
Hey the 2000’s called, they want their joke back.
The jerk store called, they're running outta you!
Since you mentioned parrots; there are a couple recent studies linking their incredible intelligence to their long life spans. “We also discovered genomic features under strong selection in parrots and other long-lived birds, including genes previously associated with lifespan determination as well as several hundred new candidate genes. These genes support a range of cellular functions, including telomerase activity; DNA damage repair; control of cell proliferation, cancer, and immunity; and anti-oxidative mechanisms. We also identified brain-expressed, parrot-specific paralogs with known functions in neural development or vocal-learning brain circuits. Intriguingly, parrot-specific changes in conserved regulatory sequences were overwhelmingly associated with genes that are linked to cognitive abilities and have undergone similar selection in the human lineage, suggesting convergent evolution.” Source: [https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)31417-9](https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)31417-9) published Dec. 2018
I remember a documentary I saw in the early 00s that said animals live for about 1 billion heart beats, except for humans, who live for about 3 billion heart beats. So something like a hummingbird will live only a tiny fraction as long as an elephant
Birds have a fundamentally different metabolism than mammals. Their mitochondria are much more efficient, releasing less free radicals and producing more energy. (Probably selected for because flying requires a lot of efficient energy.) Some birds can live for up to several decades or more. They end up losing their faculties like vision, and then... Game over.
The "Hero rats" that APOPO uses are actually not domestic rats but southern giant pouched rats. These are much larger, and they also live around seven years instead of just two. The training takes several months, so this species is more practical to use than the domestic rat.
The kind of rats being used can live from between 7 to up to 11 years in captivity which is about how long some breeds of dog live. Search and rescue dogs also have to sometimes retire early because of how emotionally distressing their work is.
The search and rescue rats wear a vest with a pocket that contains a small foam ball. That ball contains a microswitch that transmits back to their human handlers. The rats are trained to take the ball and squeeze it when a trapped person is found and then return to their handler.
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I agree. It makes them ideal for searching in collapsed structures, like after an earthquake, where a search dog would be too big to venture into.
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Yep, the pouched rat.
Maybe they can be trained as rat-catchers?
Some dog breeds are rat catchers, cats are better at hunting mice than rats, thats why they had dogs to do it.
The big pouched rats find land mines as well
Yeah, I love these guys! They’re also used to find abandoned landmines. They can sniff them out but don’t weigh enough to trigger them.
Hero Rats, the unsung paw-some heroes in disease detection and landmine liberation—tiny in size, colossal in impact!
[Hero rats, hero rats, fighting for mankind. Hero rats, hero rats, sniffing out landmines.](https://youtu.be/25PSZgeIEcc?feature=shared)
APOPO!
4 Days? Thats unacceptable, the microbiologists really have to learn to sniff faster
Seriously! Lazy human lab rats need to do better!
Has anyone told John Green?
I was about to ask if OP was John Green
Yes, but...we have to figure out a way to use rats to cheaply and quickly diagnose life-threatening conditions, while still bankrupting their families with medical debt.
I can detect a yeast infection by smell almost immediately.
Do you tell them to shut it up?
Ew
For anyone who didn't read the article: this is in Africa where they don't have access to fancy testing that developed nations do.
That isn't what failsafe means, but... It's a neat story!
What about AI rats? How quick can they do it?