Rodent Rights Activists Face Uphill Climb

Single jab reversed hair loss in lab mice

(NEWSER) - Researchers studying stress hormones were surprised to stumble upon what appears to be a cure for baldness—at least in mice. Mice who had gone bald due to overproduction of a stress hormone were treated with a compound that blocks stress in the gut and then returned to cages where they joined furry colleagues from a control group. Months later, researchers realized that the bald mice had regrown their fur and were indistinguishable from the others apart from ear tags, reports the New York Times. More»

Could the process work for humans?

(NEWSER) - Harvard scientists have reversed the aging process in mice, injecting them with an enzyme that healed tissue and reportedly spurred the growth of new neurons in their brains. Now they’re wondering if they can apply some of these benefits to humans. But differences between human and mice bodies make things complicated—and potentially dangerous, the Guardian reports. More»

And guess what? They like it!

(NEWSER) - A YouTube gem from 2007 is making the rounds again, teaching us something kind of neat and kind of gross: Rats laugh when tickled. When a Bowling Green University professor decided to try tickling the rodents, and then listening to their resulting high-frequency noises on a “bat detector,” he discovered that the rats not only laughed—they actually seemed to be enjoying the whole activity, New York reports. More»

And combo with booze may breed dangerous overconfidence

(NEWSER) - Caffeine doesn't sober you up, but it does make you feel less drunk, and that combination could have dangerous consequences, a new study suggests. Researchers came to the conclusion after giving mice alcohol and caffeine, together and separately, and comparing how they navigated a tricky maze, reports Scientific American . More»

(NEWSER) - If Ray Clark did, as police apparently suspect, kill Annie Le, investigators have an odd theory about his motivation, the New York Daily News reports. In emails that caught their attention, the Yale lab technician scolded Le about her lax handling of mice in the lab. Le apologized, but investigators wonder if resentment over the issue may have turned Clark into a killer. A co-worker described him to the New York Times as "very officious and very demanding" over minor issues and said he often gave grad students a difficult time. More»