In of import tidings , despite previous composition to the contrary , sheep are not as good at recognise pic of President Obama as humans . We feel like this is a matter on which it is important to determine the record straight , rather than pull the woollen over your eyes .
Two long time ago adelightful studycame out reporting sheep could be trained to realise human faces . After initially train the capacity to tell exposure apart . finally , the sheep learned to not just know exposure , but face , even when reckon from different angles to the one they first learned .
A unexampled study has manifest that , as telling as the findings were , theoriginal papermade claims beyond the evidence supplied .
Before we get to the criticisms , it is deserving heading off those ramping up to stigmatize both studies as wastes of taxpayer ’s money . The original inquiry was done becauseDr Franziska KnolleandProfessor Jenny Mortonof Cambridge University are stress to practice sheep as models for disease that affect memory .
Being much longer - lived than widely used research lab animals like mice and rats makes sheep a more appropriate study tool for Huntington ’s Disease , the authors ' true target . The employment of photographs of President Obama , Emma Watson , and Jake Gyllenhaal afford the story extra intelligence value compared to using gillyflower images , but did n’t affect its relevancy or quality .
However , Dr Alice Towlerof the University of New South Wales indicate Morton and Knolle err in interpreting their work . While acknowledge the economic value of the research for understanding facial realization in non - human animals , Towler and colleagueswrite : “ As scientist who contemplate face recognition in humans , we believe Knolle et al . ’s claim that ‘ sheep have advanced font - acknowledgement abilities , comparable with those of humans ' is groundless given their data . ”
The original field did n’t demand give a matching test to humans , alternatively comparing the sheep ’s result with those of humans in a different study . However , Towler points out , the human exam was much harder in several ways . Indeed , Towler contend , the paper leave evidence sheep use a dissimilar mechanism to recognize humans than the one our own brains adopt .
It ’s still potential sheep are secure at recognizing humans than we are at individual sheep , however .
Perhaps it is just as well the field missed out on what look an inevitableIgNobel prize , to go with one from 2003 on the physics ofdragging sheepover different surfaces .
Like the original research , this work was publish inRoyal Society Open Science , manifest the willingness of better peer - review journal to notice their mistakes .
Wake up sheeple . Without responses like these ewe will be shepherded to baaaad conclusions . skill is the batter ram of truth . ( Oh yeah , we went there . )
