rats

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Paper Claims Sugar Industry Quashed Unfavorable Research

International Sugar Research Foundation says 1968 study was over budget and delayed

(Newser) - Just as the tobacco industry aimed to quash evidence of health risks linked to smoking, a new paper claims the Sugar Research Foundation decades ago suppressed research on the sugar's negative effects. The assertion comes via University of California at San Francisco researchers who reviewed internal sugar industry documents,...

Politician Looks to Revive Unusual Dish: Rat Soup

It's a traditional dish in Mexican state of Zacatecas

(Newser) - Typically, one would be unhappy to find rat in his or her soup. But caldo de rata, or rat soup, has been eaten in the Mexican state of Zacatecas since colonial times, and now a local politician is trying to promote it so it regains its popularity. It's currently...

Think Common Rats Are Bad? This One Is 4 Times as Big
Scientist's 'Spectacular'
Discovery: a Giant Rat
NEW STUDY
Sep 27, 2017 10:50 AM CDT

Scientist's 'Spectacular' Discovery: a Giant Rat

New species is at risk in Solomon Islands, scientists say

(Newser) - Encountering a foot-and-a-half-long rat might be nightmarish for some, but for Tyrone Lavery, it heralded a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. Back in 2010, the mammalogist was exploring the Solomon Islands when he heard locals describe "vika," a giant tree-dwelling rat with teeth powerful enough to break open coconuts. Reports of...

NYC Spending $32M to Fight Rats
NYC's War on Rats
Will Cost It $32M
Jul 12, 2017 7:30 PM CDT

NYC's War on Rats Will Cost It $32M

Turns out the rodents can survive on just an ounce of food a day

(Newser) - New York City has announced a $32 million, multi-agency plan to reduce the rat population, which is estimated to number roughly 2 million and has included the likes of pizza rat . Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday the plan will target rats in the Grand Concourse area of the Bronx;...

Smart Thinking Saves Pet Rat After Heroin Overdose

Snuggles recovering after her overdose

(Newser) - The heroin epidemic has made its way to Vancouver, British Columbia, and even the rats are being felled. In the case of Snuggles, a pet rat rushed into the Overdose Prevention Society on Sunday, volunteers were actually able to save her life after a quick-thinking pharmacy student administered naloxone (aka...

Pet Rats Linked to Outbreak of Rare Virus

Seoul virus surfaces among Wis., Ill. breeders

(Newser) - An outbreak of a rare virus has hit at least eight people who breed pet rats, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Seoul virus is a type of hantavirus and officials say they have never seen cases in the US associated with pet rats before, CNN reports. The...

You Can Tell a Rat Is Happy by His Ears
You Can Tell a Rat
Is Happy by His Ears
study says
Dec 16, 2016 8:20 AM CST

You Can Tell a Rat Is Happy by His Ears

Researchers say the rodents have their own versions of smiling

(Newser) - Scientists have already found that rats seem to enjoy having their bellies tickled. They let out a noise too high-pitched for the human ear to detect and keep coming back for more. Now, adding to the idea that rats have their own version of a giggle, researchers at the University...

EPA Tells Cities to Stop Killing Rats With Dry Ice

'This is not necessarily one of those logical things'

(Newser) - Killing urban rats with dry ice is a cheap, effective, and non-toxic method of pest control, authorities say—but the Environmental Protection Agency wants it to stop. The EPA has informed authorities in cities including New York, Chicago, and Boston that the method is illegal under federal law because...

Rats Love Being Tickled
Rats Love Being Tickled
new study
Nov 11, 2016 12:24 PM CST

Rats Love Being Tickled

In fact, they laugh and jump for joy

(Newser) - Freudensprungen! That, as the New York Times explains, happens to be the scientific term for jumping for joy, and a new study reveals that rats are among the animals that partake. The study, in fact, also shows that rats love to be tickled and that they burst out in the...

$100K Project Uses 3-Foot Rats to Sniff Out Crime

It's not the first time their noses have been put to use

(Newser) - Giant African pouched rats that grow to three feet long can't see well, but their keen sense of smell has already made them indispensable in the hunt for anything from tuberculosis in humans to buried TNT in former war zones (they've already found 1,500 land mines in...

Urban Rats Have a Deadly New Enemy
Urban Rats Have a
Deadly New Enemy
Sep 16, 2016 6:56 PM CDT

Urban Rats Have a Deadly New Enemy

3 major US cities are using dry ice to combat their rodent problems

(Newser) - Rats have a deadly new enemy, and and isn't cats with tiny knives strapped to their paws. USA Today reports three major US cities are combating their rodent problem with dry ice. It works like this: Pieces of dry ice are dropped into rat burrows in city parks, then...

Scientists Flick Switch, Boozy Rats Stop Drinking
Scientists Flick
Switch, Boozy
Rats Stop
Drinking
STUDY SAYS
Sep 8, 2016 10:02 AM CDT

Scientists Flick Switch, Boozy Rats Stop Drinking

Study suggests alcoholism can be conquered in the brain

(Newser) - Rats can hit the bottle too hard, just like humans—and a new study suggests the rodents' alcohol dependence may be reversible, Live Science reports. "We can completely reverse alcohol dependence by targeting a network of neurons," says lead scientist Olivier George in a statement on the study,...

NZ Plans to Kill Every Rat, Feral Cat, and Possum

In the world's 'most ambitious conservation project'

(Newser) - New Zealand could soon be the envy of New York. The country has announced a "world-first" project to exterminate all non-native pests, including possums, stoats, feral cats, and rats by 2050, reports the Guardian . Why? Well, the pests, which the government says cost $2.3 billion per year, also...

This Is Likely the First Mammal Lost to Climate Change

Mosaic-tailed rat has vanished from Bramble Cay off Australia

(Newser) - Way to go, humanity. For the first time in history, human-induced climate change has been found "solely or primarily" responsible for the extinction of a mammal species, according to a new study . The Bramble Cay melomys , or mosaic-tailed rat, was found by Europeans on a tiny coral cay off...

Study Sees Link Between Cellphones, Cancer, but 'Far From Definitive'

Whether it's a harbinger or hype remains to be seen

(Newser) - The concern that cellphones may lead to cancer has been bounced around for years—and partial results from a $25 million government study purport to have found such a link, though with major caveats, the Wall Street Journal reports. Per the so-far results of the multiyear National Toxicology Program study...

Chloe Sevigny Tells Fantastic Story About Rats

They're why she left the East Village, she explains

(Newser) - Arguably the best part of an all-around pretty great interview Chloe Sevigny gave to the Guardian : the part in which she explains why she decamped from her old habitat, Manhattan's East Village, to Brooklyn. "I got out, in all honesty, because of rats. After Hurricane Sandy, my street...

Giant Rats Trained to Screen for TB in Prisons

And they're super good at it

(Newser) - Which are you more afraid of: giant rats or dying of tuberculosis? Hopefully you chose dying of tuberculosis, because Reuters reports a Belgian organization called APOPO is training dozens of African giant pouched rats to sniff out TB, starting with at-risk populations in the crowded prisons of Tanzania and Mozambique....

Scientists Find New Rat With Curious Pubic Hair

Meet the hog-nosed rat

(Newser) - A newly found creature's name is the hog-nosed rat, and things don't get any more picturesque from there. Reporting on their find in the Journal of Mammalogy , scientists describe the animal, found in 2013 on Mount Dako, on Indonesia's Sulawesi Island: It's a long-faced carnivorous creature...

Plucky 'Pizza Rat' Inspires Its Own Hashtag

This little guy is no quitter

(Newser) - Only in New York City: A new YouTube video shows a rat dutifully dragging its slice of cheese pizza down the stairs into a subway station, UPI reports. The rat sadly gives up on its prize, but Matt Little's video is still going viral and inspiring all kinds of...

DNA Test Results Are In for KFC &#39;Deep-Fried Rat&#39;
DNA Test Results Are In for KFC 'Deep-Fried Rat' 
in case you missed it
Jun 27, 2015 5:31 PM CDT

DNA Test Results Are In for KFC 'Deep-Fried Rat'

And the test shows ... it's chicken

(Newser) - Just as exciting as a Maury paternity test, but slightly more stomach-churning: The DNA test results are in for a KFC meal a California man claimed was a deep-fried rat. And those results show that it's definitely, absolutely, without a doubt nothing other than a fried chicken tender, just...

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