When a dog shakes water off its fur, the action is not just a random flurry of movements — nor a deliberate effort to drench anyone standing nearby.
This instinctive reflex is shared by many furry mammals including mice, cats, squirrels, lions, tigers and bears. The move helps animals to remove water, insects or other irritants from hard-to-reach places. But underlying the shakes is a complex — and previously mysterious — neurological mechanism.
Now, researchers have identified the neural circuit that triggers characteristic ‘wet dog’ shaking behaviour in mice — which involves a specific class of touch receptors, and neurons that connect the spinal cord to the brain. Their findings were published in Science on 7 November.
“The touch system is so complex and rich that [it] can distinguish a water droplet from a crawling insect from the gentle touch of a loved one,” says Kara Marshall, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. “It’s really remarkable to be able to link a very specific subset of touch receptors to this familiar and understandable behaviour.”
Research article was featured on the cover of this issue of Science, with a glorious picture of a brown bear doing the "wet dog shake" (https://www.science.org/toc/science/current)
Research article: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq8834
Please let me know if there is paywall
I share your frustration with the election result. I'd like to point out that venting it on strangers and making others more miserable is not the healthy way to go about it.
I would willingly trade all of my health for an effective way to engage these willfully ignorant dipshits.
This is the core problem humanity faces.
It's what allowed a child raping demented toddler to become the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military the universe has ever known. For the second time.
https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/one-crucial-word/