How to keep your dog's stress levels down? Reduce your own
Your dog is your best friend, but if you want to be his or her best friend in return then you'll need to keep your stress levels down, according to new research. Zoologists at Sweden’s Linkoping University have discovered that dogs' anxiety levels - as measured by the amount of cortisol in their systems - rise in tandem with that of their owners.
'Dogs are quite good at understanding humans,' says the report's lead author, Lina Roth. 'They’re definitely better at understanding us than we are at understanding them.'
No dog owner will be particularly surprised, of course, but it's always nice to get scientific confirmation of what we know intuitively. But there is one surprise: the phenomenon doesn't work in reverse, which is to say that nervous dogs don't make their owners nervous.
'At first, I was quite surprised at that,' adds Roth. 'But for the dog, the owner is quite a big part of their everyday life, but the owner has the rest of their life out there.'
Read the full story (National Geographic) - and then read Ben Fogle on why he loves labradors (Country Life)
See a penny, pick it up... especially if it turns out to be worth £550,000
This 1,700-year-old coin was found a couple of months ago by an amateur enthusiast with a metal detector; now, it's sold at auction for £550,000 -- the estimate had been just £100,000.
Stat of the Day
£1,000,000,000,000
That's £1 trillion, if counting all those zeroes has made your eyes swim. That's the cost of Britain meeting its emissions targets by 2050, as 'calculated' by Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond in the face of Theresa May's determination to put into motion new environmental policies before she leaves office.
Perhaps we're being unfair, but the sheer roundness of this number doesn't half suggest that it's been absolutely been plucked out of thin air -- and the Chancellor's Daily Express-style scare tactics in his letter to the PM only serve to increase that suspicion: 'Philip Hammond has written to her, saying it would mean less money for schools, police and hospitals.' It's always those three somehow, isn't it?
Don't take our word for it, though. Here's a Number 10 spokesman pouring scorn on the notion in a statement to the BBC: '[There are] a lot of figures out there on this issue that don't factor in the benefits or consider the costs of not doing this... The costs relating to meeting this target are whole-of-economy costs, not a fiscal cost, and so it's not really right to frame it as a trade-off for public spending.'
A major step forward in the battle against food waste?
It turns out that your dad was right after all: that out-of-date food in the fridge really is fine, apparently. Scientists know full well that use-by and best-before dates are pretty much useless.
Help is at hand, however, to lessen the 10 million tonnes of food thrown out each year in Britain: a team led by Dr Firat Güder from Imperial College has invented a label which detects noxious gases given off by rotting meat to tell consumers when it is and isn't safe.
Full story (The Times - subscription required)
And finally... a Quote of the Day for World Gin Day
'I'll stick with gin. Champagne is just ginger ale that knows somebody.'
- Captain Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H, as played by Alan Alda
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Nature and nurture in the gardens of Bramham ParkTim Richardson looks at the innovative and superbly maintained 18th-century landscape garden of Bramham Park in West Yorkshire, home of Nick and Rachel Lane Fox. Photographs by Paul Highnam.
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If the future of Ferrari is electric vehicles, then it is our future tooIt's widely believed that Ferrari will unveil its first electric car this year. It's the signal that the internal combustion era is coming to an end.
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The brilliant tractor tribute to the NHS from a group of Warwickshire farmersPeople around Britain have been paying tribute to the efforts of our NHS workers at the time of the coronavirus pandemic — but few have been as creative and clever as this one.
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London's iconic red bus at risk and 6,000 year old chewing gum gives clues into our DNA historyCuts to industry subsidies and an increase in fares has left bus use at its lowest point ever, while DNA extracted from ancient 'chewing gum' allows scientists to decipher the genetic code of a Stone Age woman.
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90-million-year-old 'swimming dinosaur' skeleton found by dogs out walking in Somerset, and the nonchalant moths who don't bother fleeing enemiesA superbly intact dinosaur skeleton — described as being 'museum quality' — has been discovered on a beach in Somerset.
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Battle to ban 4x4s from the idyllic Lake District spot bequeathed by Beatrix Potter, eagle fights octopus and the 'snail's pace' climate talksThis morning we look at Little Langdale's fight for peace, reflect on the climate change talks in Madrid and discover the soundtrack for Brexit.
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Country Life Today: How Greta Thunberg shifted the dial on climate change — and the backlash shows just how muchThis morning we ponder whether Greta Thunberg is the Joan of Arc for the environmental movement, look at a key election — one from 19 years ago — and ponder the marvel of 'dad tidying'.
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Country Life Today: Great news for those who love our great country pubs — the years of decline are overThere is a great sign of health in the pub industry, we look back at Edward VIII's abdication message and fret about Greenland's melting ice.
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Country Life Today: Spain accused of being 'a deplorable choice' for UN climate conferenceA no-holds-barred assault on the Spanish fishing industry, Banksy raising awareness of the homeless and the woes of the Christmas jumper are in today's news round-up.
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Country Life Today: 'This is perhaps the ultimate wake-up call from the uncontrolled experiment humanity is unleashing on the world’s oceans'In today's round up, we examine why oxygen loss is putting oceans at risk, discover that action to cut air pollution brings almost immediate benefits to human health and find out which bird's arrival marks the start of winter in Gloucestershire.
