I’m sorry about the title of this column. It’s been a long day. I was originally planning on calling it “Spacetime Meets Doggie Doo-Doo,” but my fingers seem to have a life of their own, and I don’t want to upset them lest I find one poking me in the eye.
The writing of this column was prompted by two things. First, my chum John sent me an email with the subject line “Underneath Spacetime.” This led me to a jolly interesting presentation titled The Unraveling of Space-Time on the Quanta Magazine website.
This is very well done. As you drag the scroll bar on the right-hand side of the page down, it starts with quotes, and then moves into deeper realms. I particularly like the Josephine Suh quote: “There is a consensus that it should be emergent. It’s just that we don’t know how it emerges.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
While my mind was still reeling from the cosmic spacetime conundrum, I inadvertently fell into a pile of doggie doo-doo (metaphorical speaking, of course). This came in the form of a column titled Your Dog’s Poop is a Hidden Magnetic Compass on the BBC’s Science Focus website.
Have you ever noticed that dogs tend to circle around a few times before they eventually take a weight off their minds, as it were? Well, an in-depth study reveals that they end-up avoiding an east-west orientation and end up with their noses aligned with the Earth’s north-south axis.
I’m sure this nugget of… let’s call it “knowledge…” will come in useful one day. And, when it does, you can think of me. You’re welcome.
I’ll have to get my compass out next time my son visits with his dog.
dog owners will often mention how their dogs will look at them while pooping (I’ve seen this myself with various dogs we’ve owned over the years). I’ve read that it’s because they vulnerable during that time and want to make sure you “have their back”.
It always amazes me when people spot things that are right under your nose (as it were). Like Leonardo da Vinci spotting that the cross sectional area of the main tree trunk was equal to the sum of the cross sectional areas of the main branches — and so on down the line at each split until you get to the twigs.
If you get your compass out every time a dog relieves itself, your neighbors will start talking.
Well that will give me something to think about (and look for) when I take our pair of dogs out at night to do their pre-somnolent business…..
Take a compass with you and report back on the results (but no photos please)
One thing the article didn’t mention is if the dogs’ noses always point north or south (it just says north-south axis).
I don’t know. My experience with my late grand-dog was inconsistent when it came to the directionality of the pooping. But the observation that has been made is when the dog is connected to the owner at the end of a leash.
what about when the dog is free to roam, and the temperature of the environment. Again based on my granddog, when it was cold (remember this is Canada) it was a flash outside and 20 seconds later back inside. Directionality be damned.
A funny story (at least I think so) – the dog had gone outside untethered in our back yard in about 18” of snow.. it was about chest height and he was sniffing around the find a suitable spot. He found some scent and was considering his options. Being cold he lifted and held his left rear leg up in the air. He then lifted his right front paw (Can you say kitty-corner for a dog) balancing as he continued to savour the odours.
being cold, he then lifted his rear right leg, and looked extremely non-plussed when only his head was above the snow line. He gave up and came back inside immediately.
It will take me some time to come up with a witty rejoinder to this one LOL
Dogs aren’t the only animals that align with the Earth’s magnetic field: https://www.2pnews.com/2022/03/30/ore-bodies-located-with-bovinity-rays/
-Rick
Hi Rick — I remember an experiment they performed on students about 40 years ago in the UK that showed humans have an unconscious ability in this area. It’s too long to go into here, but remind me to tell you when next we meet — Max