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NASA astronaut reveals exactly how much they get PAID in blunt three–word statement

NASA astronaut reveals exactly how much they get PAID in blunt three–word statement

Daily Mail​2 days ago
It's the job that puts the average 9–5 to shame.
But while being an astronaut is a career many dream of, you might wonder how well it pays.
Compared to office workers – who may complain about their commute – these highly–trained individuals are regularly launched into space at 17,500mph.
While Earth-based employees might not rate their office canteen or grumble about the lack of toilets in the workplace, astronauts live off dehydrated food packets and must use specially–designed bathrooms.
There's also the constant battle against weightlessness, and many experience muscle loss during missions.
So you'd be forgiven for thinking that astronauts get paid a hefty wage for their daredevil profession.
However, one NASA employee has revealed it's not the most lucrative career.
When asked about how much she got paid Nicole Stott, a retired astronaut, engineer and aquanaut, gave a blunt three–word response.
'Not a lot', she replied, when asked by LAD Bible. 'Government civil servant. You don't become an astronaut to get paid a lot of money.'
Throughout her career, Ms Stott flew on two expeditions and spent over 100 days in space. She launched the STS–128 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2009 and spent three months there.
She was the 10th woman to perform a spacewalk and the first person to operate the ISS robotic arm to capture a free–flying cargo vehicle.
According to NASA, the annual salary for astronauts is $152,258 (£112,347) per year, but this can vary depending on education and experience level.
Earlier this year, it emerged that NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore - who were stuck on the ISS for nine months - would likely receive a tiny payout for the inconvenience.
Former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman told the Washingtonian that astronauts only receive their basic salary without overtime benefits for 'incidentals' - a small amount they are 'legally obligated to pay you'.
'For me it was around $4 (£2.95) a day,' she said. Ms Coleman received approximately $636 (£469) in incidental pay for her 159-day mission between 2010 and 2011.
Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore, with salaries ranging between $125,133 (£92,293) and $162,672 (£119,980) per year, could earn little more than $1,000 (£737) in 'incidental' cash on top of their basic salary, based on those figures.
Meanwhile Neil Armstrong was paid a salary of $27,401 (£20,209) and was the highest paid of those aboard the Apollo 11 flight in 1969, according to the Boston Herald.
To become an astronaut they must go through extensive training. Positions are highly competitive with only a few available to those who have the right experience and meet NASA's physical and mental qualifications.
NASA selects a new astronaut class typically once every two years, selecting around 0.08 per cent of all applicants into their training program.
Ms Stott also answered other questions about her job– including whether or not it's possible to have sex in space.
In response, the former astronaut said: 'Probably. I don't think there's anything that would physically prevent you from having sex in space.
'I don't know that anybody has while they were there, I did not. And but just like, you know, I think about floating and swimming in a pool, you can have sex there.
'And if somebody wants to have sex in space, I think they'll figure out how to have sex in space.'
HOW DO ASTRONAUTS EAT IN SPACE AND HOW IS FOOD STORED?
Astronauts eat three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Calorie requirements differ for astronauts. For instance, a small woman would require only about 1,900 calories a day, while a large man would require about 3,200 calories.
An astronaut can choose from many types of foods such as fruits, nuts, peanut butter, chicken, beef, seafood, candy, brownies, etc.
Available drinks include coffee, tea, orange juice, fruit punches and lemonade.
No alcohol is allowed to be consumed on the space station.
Condiments, such as ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, are provided.
Salt and pepper are available but only in a liquid form because astronauts can't sprinkle salt and pepper on their food in space.
The salt and pepper would simply float away. There is a danger they could clog air vents, contaminate equipment or get stuck in an astronaut's eyes, mouth or nose.
Preparation varies with the food type. Some foods can be eaten in their natural forms, such as brownies and fruit.
Other foods require adding water, such as macaroni and cheese or spaghetti.
An oven is provided in the space station to heat foods to the proper temperature.
There are no refrigerators in space, so space food must be stored and prepared properly to avoid spoilage, especially on longer missions.
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Harvard prof says Earth-bound comet could be 'hostile' alien spacecraft sent to spy on our solar system
Harvard prof says Earth-bound comet could be 'hostile' alien spacecraft sent to spy on our solar system

Daily Mail​

time11 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Harvard prof says Earth-bound comet could be 'hostile' alien spacecraft sent to spy on our solar system

A Harvard professor has suggested a 'hostile' alien spaceship is hurtling its way towards Earth - and it could be an extraterrestrial spy. And if the object - known as 31/ATLAS and believed by most astronomers to be a comet - does land among us it will be 'a blind date of astronomical proportions,' Avi Loeb says. In a study paper, he and his fellow researchers suggest the object's size, trajectory and behavior - when taken together - suggest an unknown intelligence is steering it our way. NASA first spotted the object, traveling through our solar system at 37 miles a second, in early July and most experts expect it to come nowhere near Earth. But Loeb, a professor of astrophysics, and his associates – Adam Crowl and Adam Hibberd of the London-based Initiative for Interstellar Studies – advance a detailed theory about who or what this intergalactic visitor might be. They speculate that, far from being a comet, the object could instead be a sprawling mothership from a distant planet, armed with technology vastly more advanced than ours. Loeb and his associates have identified eight anomalies about 3I/ATLAS to support their outlandish theory. Each individual anomaly is statistically rare, they insist, and so taken together they strongly suggest that some as-yet-unknown intelligence is steering the object towards us. 'An encounter with an interstellar, alien technology is a blind date of astronomical proportions,' Loeb told the Daily Mail. 'You don't know what you will meet, because our imagination is limited to our experience on Earth.' He argues that the plots of science fiction films are 'pretty much tailored to fit the narrative of what we are doing here on Earth and just expanding [on it]'. That is, most of us have no conception of what a really advanced civilization might look like. Expecting present-day humans to comprehend the sort of technology aliens would have developed in order to reach us is 'like asking a caveman to imagine an iPhone,' says Loeb. He has suggested sending a message using radio waves to the object: 'Hello, welcome to our neighborhood. Peace!' However, he also acknowledged the risks of this, noting that any intelligent life might see the signal as a threat. Most of Loeb's professional peers have determined that 3I/ATLAS will turn out to be a comet. They believe it has been drifting through space for billions of years, accelerating thanks to the gravitational 'catapult effect' of the countless stars it has passed. Its current speed of 130,000mph makes it the fastest comet ever recorded, says NASA. Predictably, some of Loeb's fellow astronomers are peeved that he is, as they see it, letting the side down by venturing into science fiction. Oxford University astronomer Chris Lintott says he's spouting 'nonsense on stilts.' And Loeb, it has to be said, has been urging the world to keep an open mind about extraterrestrials for some time. An expert on black holes, he has spent years searching for signs of alien life and, in 2021, founded the international 'Galileo Project' to focus on this area. Two years later, he led an expedition to a site on the bed of the Pacific Ocean where a meteor was believed to have come to rest, claiming the remains his team discovered could have come from an extraterrestrial spacecraft. NASA, whose telescope in Chile first spotted 3I/ATLAS on July 1, says the object should remain visible to ground-based telescopes in September but will then pass behind the sun. It is expected to reappear by early December. So what are the anomalies about 3I/ATLAS that have so alarmed Professor Loeb? The first relates to its lack of 'tail.' Comets are propelled through space by gravity and solar radiation. The latter turns the comet's surface ice into gas, which – together with the dust it carries – creates a visible tail. Loeb said he was 'puzzled' that the object has undergone 'significant non-gravitational acceleration' without apparently having any such tail. He was also disturbed by its unusual 'retrograde' orbit around the sun (in other words, it's moving against the flow of the solar system). This, he argues, could be a 'defensive maneuver' by its alien pilots to make it harder for their craft to be intercepted by rockets fired from Earth. 3I/ATLAS's trajectory also means it will pass relatively close to Venus, Mars and Jupiter – again statistically unlikely but, he notes, affording it the perfect opportunity to snoop at the other planets in our solar system, like some sort of extraterrestrial spy. He points out that 3I/ATLAS will achieve 'perihelion' – reaching its closest point to the sun – on the opposite side of the sun relative to Earth. This, says Loeb, 'could be intentional to avoid detailed observations from Earth-based telescopes.' It would also, he warns, allow it to launch 'probes' or other 'gadgets' in secret to invade or infiltrate – or even change direction and visit our planet itself, arriving with little warning as early as late November. Some critics, while agreeing with him that scientists should be less dismissive of ET research, accuse Loeb of cherry-picking data to suit his argument. In the past few days, NASA has revealed an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope which it hailed as the 'sharpest-ever picture' of 3I/ATLAS. The image remains blurred (hardly surprising given it shows something 277 million miles away) but NASA claims it suggests the object is a comet because it appears to show a 'teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off its solid, icy nucleus.' But Loeb is adamant there is still no evidence the object has the tail of dust thrown off by comets. The jury's still out, he insists. So, if – and, yes, this is a big if – 3I/ATLAS does turn out to be an alien spacecraft, is there anything we could do? In the short term, Loeb and his co-authors have suggested using NASA's unmanned Juno spacecraft, currently in orbit around Jupiter, to photograph the object. But Juno may not have enough fuel left for such a mission. In the long term, Loeb argues, we should treat all interstellar objects entering the solar system as potentially the creation of aliens. He believes governments should co-ordinate through an international body. 'We talk about the existential risks from artificial intelligence, from climate change, from an asteroid impact, but there's no discussion about the risk from alien technology,' he told the Daily Mail. He'd like to see governments form 'task forces' to determine how to respond if and when alien intelligence is finally detected, and how to break the news to the public without triggering panic. Of course, the public reaction may depend on whether the visitors wish us well or ill. 'In the first case, humanity needs only to wait and welcome this interstellar messenger with open arms,' says Loeb. 'It is the second scenario that causes serious concern.' Loeb says we'll get a much better indication of what exactly 3I/ATLAS is when it can be seen – possibly as early as later this month – by the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope, which is now a million miles from us, will be able to view the object in infra-red, allowing it to analyze the sunlight reflected from it and determine precisely what it is. It's easy to be cynical about ET hunters like Loeb and he concedes he is expecting to be wrong. But with all his expertise, one has to consider the daunting question: What if he's right?

Tempur Pro Plus SmartCool mattress review: a dream for your joints or too soft for comfort?
Tempur Pro Plus SmartCool mattress review: a dream for your joints or too soft for comfort?

The Guardian

time14 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Tempur Pro Plus SmartCool mattress review: a dream for your joints or too soft for comfort?

Let's get the Nasa thing out of the way first. Memory foam, so the internet tells me, repeatedly, was developed by the US space agency in the 60s to cushion astronauts during flights. Nice story, but there's no extreme G-force in my bed, just a pair of middle-aged people wanting to sleep. Do we really need Nasa's pricey wonder material for that? The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. It does help, in small doses. I've found that a layer or two of memory foam can turn a good mattress into a great one. This soft, cosy material moulds to your body and does a brilliant job of tempering the solidity of springs in hybrid mattresses, such as the Simba Hybrid Pro and Otty Original Hybrid. It also absorbs bounce so well that it's helped me and my husband sleep in peace despite each other's fidgeting. A mattress made entirely from memory foam, though? I wasn't sure I'd enjoy lying on 25cm of chewy marshmallow. Mercifully, Tempur uses foam of many different firmness levels, including high-density base layers designed to provide support as strong as springs. I set out to discover how well it works by testing one of Tempur's most popular mattresses, the Pro Plus SmartCool. Tempur sent me a double-size Pro Plus SmartCool for sleep-testing in July. It was the best of times and the worst of times to test this mattress, because my bedroom was stifling. I was sent a medium mattress instead of the requested medium-firm, and this was unfortunate because heat can make memory foam even softer – and I find firmer mattresses more comfortable. At least the balmy conditions were perfect for testing the claimed cooling properties of the SmartCool fabric cover. Before any snoozing could take place, my husband, Alan, and I ran our usual mattress-testing experiments. Memory foam tends to trap heat, so we were keen to see if the SmartCool cover could offset this. We used a heat pad, a thermocouple and our bottoms to measure how efficiently the surface cooled down, and we also took the temperature of the foam beneath. We then deployed weights and wobbly cups of water to measure factors such as sinkage, motion isolation and edge support. Our family testing panel came over to score the mattress out of 10 on firmness, breathability and comfort. I prefer to sleep-test mattresses for much longer than a week because even the firmest cushioning materials soften over time. The Simba and Panda Hybrid Bamboo felt significantly softer after a couple of months. The Tempur was soft from the start, though, and Alan and I found it too cushioned for comfort. After a week of poor sleep, we gave it to my dad, Don, 85, to see if its pressure relief might help soothe the joint pain he's been suffering in his hip and shoulder (more on which below). He returned it to us for a second leg of sleep testing once temperatures had cooled down in late July. Tempur, founded in the US in 1992, was among the first brands to make mattresses from viscoelastic polyurethane foam. 'Memory foam' is how you know this stuff, but Tempur calls it 'Tempur Material' and uses its own proprietary formulas that cover a range of densities. Memory foam moulds to your body and doesn't spring back quickly when pressed. It feels quite different from the simple seat-cushion polyfoam used in many sprung mattresses under the sleep surface (in the Ikea Valevåg, for example). It's also more expensive. And so, as with many mattresses that contain high proportions of memory foam, Tempur mattresses are expensive. The Pro Plus SmartCool sits in the middle of Tempur's range, costing from £1,499 for a 21cm-deep single to £4,299 for a 30cm-deep 200 x 200cm ('special size'). The 25cm-deep double I tested costs from £2,299, almost twice the price of the Simba, the next most expensive mattress in the Filter's roundup. The medium SmartCool has four layers of foam, of varying densities: a 5cm upper layer of soft, elastic memory foam for cushioning and pressure relief; then 5cm of adaptive foam; and then 3cm of even denser supportive foam. Finally, the 12cm 'DuraBase' layer of even denser foam provides support and durability. Everyone on my panel rated it 5/10 on the soft-firm scale, so the 'medium' description is accurate. The sleeping surface sank a generous 4.2cm under 7.5kg of hand weights. That's well cushioned, but only marginally more than the Eve Wunderflip Hybrid, which sank 4cm and is described as medium-firm. Tempur doesn't say how the SmartCool's 'QuickRefresh' polyester fabric cover dissipates heat; it simply cites 'cool-to-the-touch' technology. The cover unzips easily with its stylish green handles, and it can be washed at 40C. You can also unzip and wash the base cover. Trying to wash or sponge the mattress inside, however, will invalidate your guarantee. The double-size mattress weighs a chunky 40kg, a few kilos more than the Otty or the Simba, but much less than the 65kg Millbrook Wool Luxury 4000. The Tempur's weight and floppiness – plus the absence of any turning handles – make it tricky to manoeuvre, but once you've got it on your bed, you'll never really have to. You don't have to turn it, although you can rotate it occasionally to maintain even support, according to the care guidelines. Tempur has several showrooms where you can try its mattresses before buying, although you'll need to make an appointment. Locations include Castleford in West Yorkshire, Bridgend, Swindon, Milton Keynes, Durham and both Westfields in London. Whether you buy in person or online, you get a 10-year warranty and a 100-night trial. Type: memory foam Firmness: advertised as medium, panel rated as 5/10Depth: 21, 25 (as tested) and 30cm Cover: unzip to wash at 40CTurn or rotate: don't turn; you can rotate 'to maintain even comfort'Trial period: 100 nightsWarranty: 10 yearsOld mattress recycling: not offered in UKSustainability credentials: Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified; Pro mattresses are Danish Indoor Climate labelled; UK warehouse operations are zero landfill; Tempur aims to be carbon neutral by 2040 You wait years for a mattress to turn up without being vacuum-shrunk, then they all come at once. As with the Millbrook Wool Luxury 4000, the Tempur arrived full-size and flat. That meant it was ready to sleep on immediately, unlike the oodles of bed-in-a-box mattresses I've tested, and it came packed in significantly less plastic wrapping than they did. The downside of receiving a non-shrunk mattress is that it's harder to get it up the stairs. Tempur's helpful delivery team would have done it for me, but I wanted to see how my husband and I coped (sorry, Alan). The Tempur-branded delivery team was nice to see after so many third-party couriers, but I had to wait three weeks for the mattress to arrive. New foam often has a chemical 'off-gassing' smell, and the Tempur is quite stinky (or fragrant, depending on your preferences) for its first couple of weeks. I don't mind the smell, but you may find it distracting, especially when you're trying to get to sleep. Sign up to The Filter Get the best shopping advice from the Filter team straight to your inbox. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. after newsletter promotion None like it hot when they're trying to sleep, so I was delighted by the genuinely fresh feel of Tempur's SmartCool cover. Iggy the cat was particularly keen to hog the stitched fabric when July's night-time temperatures exceeded 20C, perhaps because his 4kg body couldn't sink into the heat-trapping memory foam. Our bodies did sink into it, however. As we slept, the foam formed a cocoon around us (mainly our bums), and made us feel like we were floating in the mattress rather than on top of it. There was no sense of sagging, just of strong, deliberate cradling. Firmer mattresses are more to my taste, but they can give me niggling pain from an old rib injury, and the Tempur never did. If you live with pain and find it hard to sleep as a result, the memory foam upper layers of this mattress could be just what you need. My 85-year-old dad, Don, also enjoyed the pain relief of the mattress but has since switched back to the firmer surface to which he's more accustomed. He first tried it lying on his back and said: 'Oh, I like that … I think,' which echoed my own thoughts. I asked him to turn on to his right side to test his recently injured shoulder and hip, and he said there was no pain – a welcome relief for us both. The mattress's motion isolation is exceptionally good. This is something I've learned to expect from highly cushioned memory foam because it absorbs the movement of your body and dramatically cuts down on bounce. Alan and I are fidgety sleepers, so motion isolation helps us rest without being disturbed by each other. As mentioned, some of the higher-density layers of Tempur's mattress are decidedly firm. The Pro Plus SmartCool is also available in two firmer versions than the one I tested. But the medium version quickly turned out to be an over-enthusiastic hugger, at least for our tastes. After the initially pleasurable cradling, it just kept going until it seemed to be swallowing us. 'My bum is disappearing into it,' said Don. He and I are very small, so we didn't sink as far into this mattress as a person of larger build would. My husband, Alan, thoroughly average size, sank too far for comfort and declared it 'like being sucked into quicksand'. We wanted to give the Tempur a fair chance, so we used it on our slatted bed base for several nights, then Don used it on his solid divan base. It never felt lumpy or saggy, but my lower back felt unsupported, and our sleeping bodies made impressions so deep that it became difficult to roll over. If your sleep style involves plenty of tossing and turning, a firmer mattress will suit you better. Edge support is frankly poor for a mattress that costs this much. Even a soft mattress should have some firm reinforcement around the sides to make it easy to get into and out, but when we tried sitting on the edge, we all felt like we were sliding off it. Sitting up to read is difficult because your weight is concentrated on your bum, and you just, well, sink. Even the cover's cooling ability had its limits, as Alan and I discovered when sinking into the foam beneath it. We woke in the night, complaining that we felt we were cooking in the heat of our sleeping bodies. The cover helps by forming a barrier between you and the foam, but we found – in our experience and our heat-retention tests – that it couldn't stop the foam getting hotter than a mattress that contains springs. If you tend to overheat at night all year round, an all-foam mattress isn't for you. Environmental kudos is a challenge for a company that uses this much foam. High-viscosity polyurethane foam is non-biodegradable, has a chemical-intensive manufacturing process and is harder to recycle than fabric or springs. Given all this, Tempur has made decent strides in sustainability. The most noticeable example for me was the dramatic reduction in plastic packaging compared with bed-in-a-box mattresses. There isn't even any cardboard to get rid of. Behind the scenes, Tempur's products are Oeko-Tex Standard 100-certified, and its Danish production facility is ISO-certified for quality, environment, health and safety, and energy. Tempur mattresses are made in Denmark, and its Pro and One mattresses are certified by the Danish Indoor Climate Labelling scheme, a voluntary but internationally recognised standard for chemical compound emissions. Tempur's UK warehouses and distribution centres have been zero landfill since 2019, and the company aims to be carbon neutral by 2040. Foam isn't easy to recycle, but Tempur offers ideas on its environmental sustainability page. Old foam 'can be cleaned and shredded for use in new products, such as carpet underlay', it says, so I'm disappointed that the company doesn't offer to do this with its UK customers' old mattresses. Mattress collection is offered in the US 'on request', but not here. Tempur UK does at least run an online outlet store where you can buy refurbished products, including mattresses that have been returned by buyers within the 100-night trial. The medium version of the Pro Plus SmartCool is a soft, cradling mattress with excellent pressure relief. If you love your beds on the plush side, you may decide it's worth every penny. However, this sumptuous mattress is not for everyone – including my family and me. Perhaps the quicksand sensation was too close to our childhood nightmares to give us the sleep of our dreams. Jane Hoskyn is a features journalist and WFH pioneer with three decades of experience in rearranging bookshelves and 'testing' coffee machines while deadlines loom. Her work has made her a low-key expert in all manner of consumables, from sports watches to solar panels. She would always rather be in the woods

Puppy fat jabs: are our pets next in line for weight-loss drugs?
Puppy fat jabs: are our pets next in line for weight-loss drugs?

The Guardian

time15 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Puppy fat jabs: are our pets next in line for weight-loss drugs?

Where humans lead, their dogs tend to follow – now it seems that might even apply to weight-loss wonder drugs. Medications such as Wegovy have become ubiquitous among people hoping to shed pounds quickly. But businesses keen to cash in on the science behind the weight-loss jabs are now investigating other applications for the drugs, and our four-legged friends could be the next in line for a slimming solution. The active ingredients in the drugs mimic a hormone called GLP-1, which makes people want to eat less. One biotech firm has just announced trials for an implant that reproduces the effect in dogs, with the aim of bringing it to the market as soon as 2028. The hope is that the same science can be used to quell the voracious appetite of some dog breeds that can lead to them piling on the pounds. While experts say such medications could be beneficial for some overweight animals, their use outside of humans is not without complication or the potential for controversy. What is not contentious is that pet weight is a real issue for many owners. Neutering, age, a lack of activity and overfeeding are among the factors that can contribute to the problem. According to a 2024 report by the trade body UK Pet Food, 50% of dogs and 43% of cats are overweight. Excess weight can shorten the lifespan of pets and reduce their quality of life; tubby cats, for instance, face a greater risk of problems including diabetes, urinary tract issues and cancer, while overweight canines are more likely to have to contend with conditions such as arthritis, heart disease, breathing problems and cancer. Commonly recommended solutions are increased exercise and strict prescription diets that are high in fibre and protein but low in calories. Dr Eleanor Raffan, a veterinary surgeon and expert in canine genetics and obesity at the University of Cambridge, said some good old-fashioned discipline should be the first option. 'I would [advise] owners, both for the benefit of their pockets, and possibly for the benefit of their pets, to try modifying their dog's diet and exercise regime first, because I think we know that that can be safe and effective if done well,' she said. 'But if that fails, or if there's an urgent need to get weight loss, then I see no reason why using [GLP-1 mimic] drugs shouldn't be a reasonable option, so long as they are tested in proper, prospective, well-designed, randomised clinical trials before being widely offered in practice.' A strong selling point of the medication is that it helps pet owners navigate one of the biggest obstacles to pet weight loss: what many vets describe as 'pester power', or, to put it another way, humans' inability to say no to their loyal companions. 'What our research shows in our group … is that that if you have a very foodie dog, you have to work much harder,' she said. 'You have to really resist the big brown eye treatment and that can be really hard in our busy lives today.' Appetite suppressants may help stop the kind of begging that most pet owners are familiar with, but they come with one major drawback: that a pet's appetite is often an important marker of their health. Some experts worry that if humans are unable to tell if their animal has stopped eating because they are unwell or because the weight loss drugs are doing their job, it could prove dangerous. 'If cats stop eating for a few days, they can develop a condition called hepatic lipidosis and other problems, which can be life threatening,' said Raffan. Michael Klotsman is the chief executive of Okava, one of the companies developing a long-acting implant called OKV-119 that contains a GLP-1 mimic called exenatide. He said behavioural changes from OKV-119 were quite different from illness-related appetite loss. 'What owners should expect to see is their pet eating appropriate portions without the previous food obsession – they'll still eat regularly and show interest in meals, just without the excessive begging, scavenging or gulping behaviour,' he said. The company is planning trials in dogs, and hopes to launch its implant commercially in 2028 or 2029. Klotsman said: 'OKV-119 represents an additional tool for veterinarians treating pets where conventional approaches have been insufficient, similar to how GLP-1 therapies have provided new hope for human patients struggling with obesity despite their best efforts with diet and exercise.' Prof Peter Sandøe, of the University of Copenhagen and the director of the Danish Centre for the Study of Companion Animal Welfare, said such drugs could potentially help some pets, such as food-obsessed dogs. However, he added, if owners were concerned enough about their pet's weight to consider such medications, then there were many other – probably cheaper – options they could try, from activity feeders to extra walks, microchip-controlled feeders, and switching out treats for fun and games. 'Why take the medical solution if there's some other solutions that actually might be better for both human and animal welfare?' he said.

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