Can dogs detect the next pandemic before it begins? | Glen J. Golden

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

What if animals like dogs, ferrets, mice and raccoons could help sniff out the next pandemic? Exploring the science of smell, neurobiologist Glen J. Golden delves into the development of a "mechanical nose" that could detect diseases by identifying specific odor profiles. Until that technology is fully developed, he explains how we can train humanity's furry allies to identify illnesses — and help stop the spread in its tracks.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective.
0:02.0	Audio Collective.
0:04.0	You're listening to TED Talks Daily,
0:08.0	where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.
0:15.0	I'm your host, Elise Hugh.
0:17.0	Neurobiologist Glenn Golden is, like many of us, a dog lover and his belief in the capabilities of our creatures led him to ask
0:26.6	whether furry friends can be bio detectors and detect infectious diseases with
0:32.1	their noses.
0:33.0	In his 2023 talk, Golden shares another way dogs are earning their nickname
0:37.8	as man's best friend.
0:39.2	After the break.
0:40.2	And now our TED Talk of the day.
0:46.0	You know how smoke detectors work, right?
0:49.7	So imagine if we had something like a smoke detector but for diseases.
0:55.2	Instead of testing the air for smoke particles,
0:58.8	this alarm would look for tiny traces of an odor profile associated with being infected by a virus, for example,
1:07.0	all day long 24-7.
1:10.7	But the second the odor profile reached a certain concentration, the alarm would start blaring.
1:17.0	Immediately, you would know that you were sick, that you should see a doctor, or at the very least that you should see a doctor or at the very least that you should isolate yourself.
1:26.8	Ideally this mechanical nose would sniff out a virus before you showed any symptoms or spread it to anyone else.
1:35.0	Because if we learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic,
1:39.0	it's that testing matters.
	...

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