Michael Rosenthal
(11/2021) I have been a lover of dogs since I was a child. My first dog was a mixed breed puppy that we named Butch that my father brought home from a pet store at a purchase price of five dollars! I grew up in a middle class neighborhood in Youngstown, Ohio (nicknamed Crimetown USA!), where many families had dogs. Some ran loose, and some were confined to the house or yard. Two dogs that I remember most were Jamar (named for the family children Jack and Maryann) who lived next door and Taffy, a yellow cocker spaniel that lived directly across the street from us.
As an adult I and my family have attended many dog shows and learned about the many dog breeds. My wife grew up in Chicago, and her mother bred, raised and showed schipperkes, a Belgian Barge Dog. A number of champions came out of that breeding, though one of them tried to bite me once. With all due respect, it is not my favorite dog breed.
If you attend dog shows, such as the very visitor friendly shows held regularly at the Howard County Fairgrounds, you will be particularly made aware of the differences in size, coat, and temperament among the various dog breeds. We have owned a number of purebred breeds in our adult life, currently sharing our home with a wonderful standard poodle named Willie Nelson.
Dogs are amazing diverse in looks and in behavior. Newfoundlands are shaggy and bearish, while Chihuahuas are tiny and "yippy". Milly is a Chihuahua who holds the Guinness World Record for World’s Shortest Dog!
OK, so where’s the science? Neurological scientists in Georgia have done MRI scans on 62 dogs of 33 breeds, and found well-defined differences in their brains. They made maps of six neural networks linked to specific functions, such as sense of smell or movement. Some of this is due to selective breeding in order to provide dogs for specific behavior, such as hunting, herding, and guarding. Recall the presence of such dogs in the coverage of the search for missing people in the news recently. Willie is lying beside me as I write this, making sure my description of dog behavior is accurate.
Our canine companion, Willie Poodle, has appointed himself as a watchdog. He guards the front door, and viewing through a window, he barks like crazy at everyone who passes by. His guardian behavior however is confined to barking. When I took him on leash to the mail truck, he put his paws up to the door to say hello to our mailperson.
The distinction between working dogs and family members is not that distinctive. Though some breeds and some individual dogs (like people!) are more suited to a specific working task, all breeds can be socialized to be a member of a human family. Like people, some are more affectionate and adaptable than others!
Studies of behavior such as this may shed light on how brains, including humans, work in general. Studies include attention to the variations in behavior between members of a single breed. This doesn’t surprise me! Look at the variations in behavior even within a family with the same parents.
As I’m sure you readers know, just because something is in print doesn’t mean it is accurate. One of the publications that I read regularly is Worst Pills, Best Pills News. It is published by the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, a national nonprofit advocacy organization "that fights for government openness and accountability, safe and affordable health care, clean energy, access to the civil justice system, fair trade product safety and strong regulatory policy". I recommend it to you. It has a lot of useful information.
As a trained and experienced scientist, I have taken more than a personal interest in vaccination against COVID-19. I am absolutely convinced that vaccination is safe, effective, and important. I recommend that if you need further encouragement to vaccinate, speak to your physician.
The space program moves on. Can you image a space trip for fun on your vacation? I grew up reading science fiction, and I still have a basement full of sf books and magazines. I really believe that period was a prelude and influence to my young adult decision to become a scientist. Unlike my many college friends who envied my good grades in chemistry, which are necessary for medical school acceptance, I wanted to be a scientist, not a physician. So now, I pick up the newspaper and see such things as recently stated in the Washington Post, "NASA looks to moon, Mars, as it reorganizes". And then who would have then imagined that people would be traveling into space for recreational purposes!
NASA is now looking beyond trips to the International Space Station, and is reorganizing to put emphasis on trips to deep space. They are considering a plan to build a permanent presence on the moon, and eventually to build a permanent presence on Mars. To pursue these and other goals, a new directorate, to be known as Exploration Systems Development, will oversee these efforts in which NASA pushes new frontiers. This new directorate would include a partnership with a growing commercial space industry.
NASA has an initiative called the Artemis moon program in which astronauts would travel to the surface of the moon, but the 2024 goal is not likely to be achieved on time. The first stage, Artemis I, would orbit the moon without astronauts aboard. The second flight, Artemis II, would be a crewed mission around the moon in late 2023 or early 2024. No concrete plans have been put forth yet to land astronauts onto the moon’s surface. The very fact that these plans are developing is amazing to me. It’s the science fiction novel of the 1950s becoming reality.
Here is one more space item that was recently reported in The Kiplinger Letter, another publication I highly recommend. New large satellites in high orbit, they say, are coming soon from Hughes and from Viasat to boost internet service speed and capacity in the United States and around the world, hopefully in 2022.
And finally, an item of high excitement has been reported in the Town of Emmitsburg Fall Newsletter. Backyard chickens and honeybee apiaries will be allowed with permits, and with specific guidelines for the enclosures, rules for waste storage removal, required animal care guidelines, and more. Details should be available at www.emmitsburgmd.gov. I will be sticking with Willie, my wonderful standard poodle, though I am sure he’d enjoy chasing some chickens in our backyard.
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