AP file

The Dogslife project also is collecting DNA cheek swabs from about 500 dogs to determine how genetics interplays with environment.

By Tia Ghose, LiveScience

Should Rover lounge on the couch or ski down a mountain? Right now, there's no way to tell.

But a new health database for Labrador retrievers aims to change that. The database has enrolled more than 1,407 adorable puppies and tracks their health problems as they grow.

The database, described in the Jan. 16 issue of the journal BMC Veterinary Research, could identify genetic and environmental factors — such as exercise and food — that keep Labrador retrievers healthy. In the first year of life, about eight in 10 puppies were ill (mostly from gastrointestinal problems), although only half of those dogs needed to see a vet, according to the new study.

"We hope to follow the health of these dogs throughout their lives so that we can identify aspects of care which might reduce the risk of dogs developing disease in the future," said study co-author Dylan Clements, a veterinarian at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, in a statement. [ The 10 Most Popular Dog Breeds ]

Healthy pups
In general, some amazing pups are healthy from birth, while others are inbred or sickly. But knowing how to keep Fido in peak condition is less clear-cut.

"If you ask a simple question like, 'How much exercise should my dog get,' then actually it's very difficult to provide an answer based on scientific fact," Clements told LiveScience.

To change that, Clements and his colleagues created an Internet database called Dogslife to track the U.K.'s most popular dog breed from puppyhood onward. They contacted new Labrador owners forwarded from the Kennel Club, and used an online survey to find out what their dogs eat, how often they exercise, where they sleep and live, and what diseases they've had.

Periodically, they remind owners to provide updates on the website. They are currently collecting DNA cheek swabs from about 500 dogs to determine how genetics interplays with environment.

While other dog health databases do exist, including here in the United States, this is one of the few to track puppies as they grow up, and without relying on veterinarian visits, which have the potential for bias toward sick dogs or dogs with wealthier owners.

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Global Volcanism Program

The volcano map database provides free access to large volcanic events of magnitude 4 and greater.

By Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet

Live on the East Coast? Thinking of escaping to a warm Caribbean island right now? You might want to check a new, open access database of the world's deadliest volcanoes first.

Though not intended as a travel advisory, the database does include several Caribbean volcanoes, such as Montserrat's Soufrière Hills volcano, which sent pyroclastic flows down the mountain in 2010. (The rest of the island remains a lush resort.) However, researchers do hope the public learns more about volcanic hazards in their region by accessing the records.

"The long-term goal of this project is to have a global source of freely available information on volcanic hazards," principal investigator Stephen Sparks, a volcanologist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.

Compiled by an international team from the University of Bristol with colleagues from the United Kingdom, United States, Colombia and Japan, the database provides free access to large volcanic events of magnitude 4 and greater. The scale is a relative measure of the explosiveness of volcanic eruptions. The 2010 eruption Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland was a magnitude 4; the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington was a magnitude 5; and when the Philippines' Mount Pinatubo blew its top in 1991, it was a magnitude 6 eruption.

"Magnitude 4 or greater eruptions are typically responsible for the most loss of life," geologist Sian Crosweller of the University Bristol, who led the database team, said in a statement. "The database's restriction to eruptions of this size puts the emphasis on events whose low frequency and large hazard footprint mean preparation and response are often poor."

The open access database, called Large Magnitude Explosive Eruptions (LaMEVE), will provide crucial information to researchers, civil authorities and the general public, the statement said.

There are nearly 3,000 volcanoes and more than 1,800 eruptions in the database, spanning 1.8 million years. The team plans to extend the records back to the beginning of the Quaternary period, 2.58 million years ago.

The Smithsonian Institution also maintains an exhaustive database of the world's volcanoes, called the Global Volcanism Program, but only for those active in the past 10,000 years.

The LaMEVE database is part of a major international effort called the Global Volcano Model, aimed at better understanding volcanic hazards and risk and reducing the loss of life and damage from future eruptions.

Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter@OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

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