Hours or days after someone has gone missing, the trailing K9 may be given an inconsistent, patchy, messy scent trail and asked to follow it. As you can imagine, it is super challenging work.

This is a story about one dog who sparked an idea and another whose expert sniffing led to a medical breakthrough that today helps thousands of people worldwide.

The annual Canine Science Symposium was held last month at San Francisco State University. In case you missed it, here’s my hot take on those two information-packed days.