Last night, I was watching a documentary about service dogs. It was very moving; major blubbo and all that. At one point, it came to a segment about cancer-sniffing dogs, then set the dogs aside for an extended piece on a mechanical dog nose scientists are trying to build to replicate dogs' cancer-sniffing capabilities.
Huh. If only there were millions of dogs without homes, most of whom could be trained to do this work for free at hospitals all over the world!
Of course, as Iain observed, giving a life and an occupation to homeless dogs who can detect cancer in its earliest and most treatable stages (and affordably treatable stages, at that), wouldn't be nearly as profitable for Big Pharma as building costly machines that will likely never replicate with the same accuracy what a dog will do for a biscuit.
For the record, I would totes volunteer to provide belly rubs to cancer-sniffing dogs in residence at my local hospital.
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