Keep your mice warm

A report in Science Daily says that a staggering 9 out of 10 drugs "successfully tested in mice and other animal models ultimately fail to work in people." Why does all this expensive research and testing prove a failure? Because the mice are cold.

Who outside of a research lab would know that the most commonly used test subjects are kept in a cold environment? It turns out that cooler temps help prevent aggression.  A Stanford researcher proposed the idea that the attempt to keep warm distorts the mice' metabolism, making their reactions to drugs less like ours than they would otherwise be.

The solution? Give the mice nesting material so that they can build a warm place and live like actual mice. The research involved different room temperatures, cages, and nesting materials in order to determine exactly what the mice like best. Read the short article here and find out what the researchers have to say about mice on vacation.