Fantasy in Glass’s new glass slumping mold supplier has discovered that rats can be trained to help in the manufacture of their molds for glass slumping and fusing.
Apparently it's not just any rodents, but the "highly social, intelligent" degus- a small caviomorph rodent that is native to Chile. And while they don't use tools in their natural habitats, they were taught by researchers as well as the staff of this mold manufacturer to do so in captivity.
After several months of training and practice, researchers say, the degus can move a rake as smoothly and efficiently as croupiers in any Las Vegas casino- a handy skill when mixing the mud-like slurry that these molds for slumping glass are made of.
“This is first time rodents have been trained to wield tools”, said Gary Brownley, a neuroscientist, who led the experiments at the Laboratory for Really Cool Science in Toronto. He elaborated about how they are so efficient and quality conscious that the Teamsters’ union has petitioned the mold manufacturer to either stop using these poor little helpless animals or to certify them to unionize the shop.
While these degus rodents are best at manufacturing molds 14” or smaller in diameter (a size that is easily accommodated by most of the kilns sold at FIG) scientists from the LRCS are considering training baboons in the manufacture of larger molds- a specialty of Brownley’s.
While it has long been thought that tool use is a hallmark of higher intelligence, Dr. Brownley said, the brain structures that underlie such abilities may lie dormant in many animals with good hand-and-eye or paw-and-eye coordination. Training them to make molds in captivity provides insights into the plasticity of their brains, he said, and may even shed light on how early humans evolved tool use in the first place.
In separate studies, Dr. Brownley notes they are examining gene expression in the brains of macaques and marmosets trained to check the coefficients of expansion in Bullseye glass.
To see the handiwork of these degus rodents, come down to Fantasy In Glass next week when Mikey and staff take delivery of over 300 molds of various sizes and complexities. Pricing on most of them at under $25.00! Go here to see pictures…
1 comment:
Indeed, Mikey. Communication from my second cousin Gary (not to be confused with THIS Gary. My family is singularly unimaginative in naming their children.) attest to the success of the Rodentia Toolaris (to give the beast its proper name) program. Cousin Brownley writes...
"The key to the whole conditioning process was the reward mechanism. When shown bowls slumped into their molds, the colours bright with dichro supplied by the kind folks at FIG, the rats inherently knew that their success in mold making directly led to the beautiful final glass. The liberal application of Molson's Ale didn't hurt either. As to working with higher primates, their predilection to consuming single-malt whiskeys as a reinforcement tool vs. Molson's is putting a bit of a financial crimp in the program. One hopes that FIG's Mikey may make some small contribution in this matter."
Post a Comment