Doggles - Eyeprotection For Your Dog

Doggles are the kind of fancy accessories that your dog can really benefit from. Besides the obvious reason to provide UV protection for your dog, goggles can protect you dogs eyes form foreign objects.

Some dogs come to the vet, time and time again, to have a foreign object removed from its eye. This is painful, can cause serious problems, and it is of course not cheep for the owner. This is especially a problem for dog breeds with bulging eyes, like the Pekingese, Maltese, Pug and Boston Terrier, to mention some, and these breeds’ eyes can also get very irritated from dust and wind.

Doggles can protect dogs’ eyes from dust, wind, and foreign objects. These sunglasses offer 100% UV protection, the lenses are shatterproof and anti-fogging. Doggles are very flexible and have snug-fitting frames with foam padding, kind of like swimming goggles, so you can be sure that they don’t cause any discomfort.

Via Styledash

Accessories For Dogs

I am a huge fan of beautiful and fun dog accessories like leaches, collars, harnesses and other necessary pet products, like e.g. Pylones leashes, and I love when people choose these products with the look and personality of their dog in mind. What I do not like is when people who love pink diamond collars just happens to have a German Shepherd male they can use to show it of on, and similar situations.

I think it's a great thing that people have a good deal of money these days, and that many pet owners chooses to use some of the money on stuff for their pets, but we should bear in mind what gifts our pets will benefit from receiving. Maybe it would be a better idea to give Fido a new quality toy or a dog training course, instead of a diamond encrusted dog bed?

It makes me sad when I encounter dogs that obviously never have had proper training, and look like they came straight from a diamond accessory photo shoot. Dogs should not function as accessories for people.

Animals Inspire Amazing Robots

If you are going to make a robot, what better way than to copy natures perfect designs that have developed over billions of years? But it's not easy to find out how natures designs really work, it takes a lot of research.

The Boston based Boston Dynamics have created the BigDog, a quadruped robot that can run, walk and climb through rough terrain with a heavy load on its back. BigDog looks more or less like a dog without a head, and it movements are much like a dogs or a horses.

BigDogs legs have compliant elements that allows it to absorb the legs shock absorption energy, that otherwise would be lost, and recycle it to create the next step.

It is amazing how much energy the legs produce to slow the legs down when walking, and there is much new technology taking advantage of this. A good example is the cell phone charger, which will allow us to recharge our cell phones just by walking.

One of Boston Dynamics' other robots, RiSE, can climb vertical surfaces like trees, walls and fences. To create RiCE they used technology made by studying how geckoes and roaches move and use their feet. See Robert Fulls TED Talk video, which I have written a bit about in an earlier article, to get very fascinating details on what their studies revealed, and how they used these finds to create RiSE.

Boston Dynamics also have also made the RHex robot that can move almost anywhere.

Via Have You Seen This?

Hennie van Heerdens Beautiful Animal Photos

The devoted secretary, originally uploaded by hvhe1.

Love beautiful nature and animal photos? Be sure to check out Hennie van Heerdens photos on Flikr.

What the Dogs Tail Could Tell You if you Looked Very Closely

It seams that the dogs "tail language" is much more diverse than first thought. It's time to pay some serious attention to the details of your pooch's tail wagging. Does your dog wag to the left or to the right when it sees you? It can actually tell you a lot, if you can spot the difference..

Science American tells the whole story.

Self-Entertaining Dog

Oh my, the lengths some dog owners go to so they won't have to entertain the dog ;P

Cryptomundo

I just discovered Cryptomundo through a BoingBoing article.
Quite an interesting site!

I knew scientists were discovering new species all the time, but I had no idea how many species we were talking about. Cryptomundo's roundup of new species discovered the last few weeks gave me a good ide of just how many.

A Couple of Gecko Videos

TED has some amazing articles and videos. It’s a great resource when you're trying to keep up with the new scientific knowledge out there.

Here is some knowledge about the gecko and how it uses its amazing feet and tail.

TEDtalk on gecko feet.
Video report on how the gecko uses its tail.

Via TEDblog

Microscopy Images

As I am in the early stages of my education, I am still very fascinated by microscopy. I've been told that this obsession is easily cured, and that I will most likely want to stay as far away as possible from the laboratory by the end of 2008.
I hope not! :)

I've looked through a few books about microbiology and dermatology, and as I've been told, the images are often of poor quality. That is why I've googled a bit this weekend, to find sources of better images. I found more that I hoped for. :)

My list of microscopy image sources:

• Dennis Kunkel - Great site with lots of images in fancy colors.
• Droplets - Lots of fantastic images, information, and a very nice collage.
  
• Museum of Science - Some nice images in black and white.
• Scarf Photo - Images with colors and zoom feature.
  
• Flikr - Images tagged with electron microscope.
  
• Molecular Expressions - Lots and lots of images.
• Microscopy-UK International Microscopy Gallery - Big gallery.
  
• SWEHSE - List of sites with microscope images.
  

Welcome to Studying Animals

This blog is meant to function as a public notebook for me, while I make my way through the veterinary nurse education. It will contain notes and articles directly related to my studies, but it will also contain articles about anything animal-related I might find interesting.

As fashion design and product design is one of my other big interests, I will of course feature new, practical and cool products for animal as well.

I hope you'll enjoy reading this blog and comment on anything you find worthy of commenting on. ;)