lab rat

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The Odd Consequence of Rats' Inability to Vomit

It's a consequence that impacts human health

(Newser) - Mice and rats can't vomit. Ditto squirrels, beavers , and other rodents. Lucky them, perhaps, but there's a poor-us element to that fact, as Katherine Wu explains in the Atlantic . When it comes to rats, the why is fascinating, and multi-pronged: Some of it is just in the makeup...

Scientists Create Stoner Rats
Scientists Create Stoner Rats
NEW STUDY
Aug 24, 2016 2:30 PM CDT

Scientists Create Stoner Rats

THC reduces their 'willingness to exert cognitive effort,' even for a larger reward

(Newser) - Scientists, apparently bored with pert, productive rats, added a little marijuana to the equation and found that, as many a teenager can tell you, laziness ensued. So report researchers at the University of British Columbia in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience after concluding that male lab rats given TCH...

Use More Female Lab Rats, Feds Tell Scientists

NIH says gender bias in research hurts women's health

(Newser) - If medical researchers want money from the National Institutes of Health, they'll have to put an end to the boys' club in the lab. The new NIH rules aren't talking about a gender bias among the scientists themselves, however, but among their test subjects—specifically animals and cells,...

Lab Rats Acquire 'Sixth Sense'
 Lab Rats Acquire 'Sixth Sense' 
Feb 18, 2013 8:48 AM CST

Lab Rats Acquire 'Sixth Sense'

Paging Bruce Willis?

(Newser) - A group of lab rats at North Carolina's Duke University has acquired an enviable ability: a "sixth sense." Scientists say they found a way to enable the rats to detect infrared light that would otherwise go unseen. The Verge explains the mechanics of the feat, which involved...

Monkeys Pass Altered Traits to Offspring

Genetic breakthrough will aid disease study, but troubles some

(Newser) - Japanese scientists have produced the first genetically modified monkeys that can pass on their new traits to offspring, a research breakthrough mired in ethical quandaries. The technique is meant to be used to infect monkeys with diseases like Parkinson’s and then test treatments on them, but could eventually be...

Rats! Humans, Rodents Have Lots in Common

Much-maligned animals laugh, dream, look forward to sex

(Newser) - Rats may be repulsive to some, but scientists are finding that they're a lot like humans. A recent crop of behavioral studies shows that rats are astonishingly self-aware, Natalie Angier reports in today's Times. They laugh when tickled and dream in epic narratives. There are even rat optimists and rat...

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