They can also detect things in motion, moving at high rates of speed. They have amazing noses and ears. They can be trained for anything---better than robots!
Cognitive skills by locating food? They forgot about the power of the nose, although I would like to read about what else they have discovered. Thanks! :-)
"people don't even understand physics!" - unless they are phycisists, of course. :-)
Well, obviously neither cat nor dog can "understand" even the word "physics", but it is marvellous how animal brains including our own - can "calculate" instinctively the right responses to particular stimuli in particular situations, especially when you do analyse the physics involved.
Note the difference: understanding means knowing how it works, in principles and specifics. As a simple analogy, you might be very good at playing tennis, say, but you don't need to know anything about ballistics to be able to serve the ball, and return it when approaching you. I doubt very much if you brain is doing any calculus whatsoever - it would not be quick enough for a start - but can predict correctly or at least closely, how to move your limbs each time.
And that's for a human who might have at least a lingering memory from school that calculus is a branch of mathematics- a dog wouldn't even recognise basic arithmetic.
It would indeed be fascinating to know just how the brain can do what it does in situations rich in very advanced physics, whether it's that of human playing top-level tennis or soccer, or of a bat using its echo-location to help it fly out from deep in a cave and catch a few juicy moths in a nearby forest.
WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH 