COVID sniffer dogs, cave bear and corals — September’s best science images

COVID sniffer dogs, cave bear and corals — September’s best science images

The month’s best science images

This is Floki, a springer spaniel that scientists at the University of Adelaide in Australia are training to detect signs of coronavirus infection in human sweat. The research is part of an international effort to train sniffer dogs to rapidly screen people for COVID-19. The canines are rewarded with positive reinforcement — in Floki’s case, being allowed to play with his favourite toy — when they pick a sweat sample from someone with the disease out of a line-up. Preliminary studies show that dogs trained in this way are able to identify people who are infected with the coronavirus before they develop symptoms. A pilot scheme involving 4 sniffer dogs at Helsinki airport indicated that dogs can detect the presence of the virus in less than 10 seconds with nearly 100% accuracy.

See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.

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