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Blog Pick of the Month – June 2011

Brian Mossop Blog Pick of the Month

German Shepherd By Magnus Brath, http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnusbrath/5339853870/

Last month’s winner is Elizabeth Preston from Inkfish, for her post on dogs’ ability to discriminate identical twins based on smell:

According to a new study from the Czech Republic, though, a dog can do one better than a DNA technician. A group of trained German shepherds were able to reliably tell apart the scents of identical twins.

Preston goes on to discuss the implications of this line of research:

In this country, perhaps we should consider giving dogs a larger role in forensic investigations. As long as identical-twin criminals don’t strike, DNA is still a reliable and (usually) convincing form of evidence. But it’s easy for us to forget that other animals have access to a whole layer of information we can’t begin to decode.

Elizabeth, along with all of the study’s authors, will receive a complimentary PLoS ONE t-shirt and our heartfelt thanks.

Photo via Flickr / Magnus Brath

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