I think that it is a possibility to use cancer-sniffing dogs, and I’d totally go for it.

I don’t think it’s possible to industrialize the training/distribution/management of cancer-sniffing dogs the way it is the manufacture/distribution/maintenance of high-tech equipment — so there isn’t the same economic incentive to push for the use of dogs.

This is my other qualm about the dog thing, cute and useful as it would be if it worked. Scientists really have a tough time trying to pin down any sort of shared characteristic between cancers — there are just endless variations, which results in very different cell populations for the same “cancer” — and it’s not like all cancer cells secrete one particular chemical. But perhaps dogs could “specialize” in particular types of cancers; for example, prostate cancer has a pretty good consistent marker (and have fun with *that* exam! The dog sure will! :D)

(Also, the size comparison is a little disingenuous; that would presumably be the size of a machine that *smelled* the “chemical” and not one that was just responsible for detecting it in any way.)

But perhaps if we dressed the dog in little doggy scrubs or a lab coat you would come to like doctors better by association? :p

Also, as someone who fears and hates all doctors and medical technology, I’d find the dog very comforting.

I would be really interested in seeing how this played out, actually. Take a group of people and tell them they’re getting screened for cancer (not high risk patients, of course–random people who otherwise wouldn’t think they were in any danger of having it). Introduce a certain number of them to a trained dog for the screen. Take another group and show them a piece of “new” technology that’s merely a well decorated toaster or some such–something that has nothing to do with any real medical procedure but looks as if it reasonably could.

Personally, I’d guess that people(in the U.S.) would accept the fancy looking machine more readily than the dog for no real reason other than it’s a fancy looking machine, particularly if someone in a white lab coat told them it worked.

I realized halfway through this comment that I’ve been watching too much mythbusters.

Great articles. I love the fake bus stop idea. And I totally agree that American culture in general fetishizes technology to a ridiculous degree. Just ask a typical person anywhere between the teens and forties to go without the Internet or a cell phone for a few days.

At the nursing home where my grandmother ended her days they had a keypad to open the door to get out.

The 4 digit code was on a sign about 2 metres away from the key pad. That meant that visitors could get out easily without having to ask staff.

However, the patients would forget the code in the time it took them to get from the sign to the keypad.

It was a handy solution.