Slanted Science

Archive for the ‘Laboratory Animals’ Category

It’s one of those little scientific factoids which everybody knows: sharks can smell a single blood cell from approximately thirteen-thousand miles away, and are able to navigate their way towards it with terrifyingly implacable ease.

Less well known has been the mechanism by which they detect the direction from which the scent is coming. It was theorized that they, and other animals, used concentration of scent molecules as a means of assessing exactly where a smell is coming from.

But now scientists are declaring that in fact, it is the small- but-detectable time-lag between the stink hitting one nostril and then the other that provides the directional cue. Read the rest of this entry »

If cartoons have taught us anything, it’s that household pets have an innate sense of their place in the animal hierarchy.

It’s dogs, then cats, then mice, then – at the bottom of the heap and liable to be picked on by anyone else – insufferably cutesie-cute little canaries.

But you, like us, may have often wondered how, out there in the real world, these various critters become aware of what they need and needn’t be scared of. It can’t be by experience for example: a mouse who stuck around the first time a cat comes calling would would be nothing more than a sad sack of skin on somebody’s doorstep by the second feline visit.

No, there must be some in-built mechanism, some evolved kind of interplay between the two. Turns out there is just such a thing, and it provides a lovely example of the “evolutionary warfare” between predator and prey.

And it’s all about the urine… Read the rest of this entry »

Great news for boozers: scientists have announced that they have discovered why we get hangovers the morning after a great night out.

Well, in between our usual slurps of vodka and cranberry juice. Obviously. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, you’re in luck. Scientists have just announced their success in breeding a transgenic trout which boasts a set of chest and shoulder muscles that could see it making an appearance on the next season of Jersey Shore.

The only problem? Well, you just get out there with your rod and try reeling in one of these bastards. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re not sure why, but everybody is reporting today on the Dutch scientists who have created meat within a lab culture system. First as always, we reported this in November last year. So here’s a re-post for ya:

Great news for vegetarians who miss the taste of meat: in a few years, you may be able to chow down on a slice of bacon or two with a clean conscience. Scientists report today the first ever production of a piece of meat grown entirely in vitro.

Where next with this? May we suggest co-culturing a piece of pork with a pair of pigeon wings? Hey presto: flying pigs. Read the rest of this entry »

Story Update!

We missed this previously, but feel compelled to bring you the video which accompanies our recent story about female bats giving their mates oral sex during intercourse, in order to keep his genes within her reach, rather than other females’. Read the rest of this entry »

Some scientists spend their days hunched over a lab bench, trying to find a cure for cancer. We honor them.

Some scientists work endless hours in front of computers, trying to decipher the mysteries of the universe. We respect them.

And some scientists use high-speed cameras to film duck penises shooting out of their owner’s body, corkscrewing down plastic tubes and then uselessly dribbling ejaculate into the air. We love them, and want them to keep doing this forevermore. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)  in Frederick, Maryland work with various nasty pathogens. They’re the kinds of bugs which, experts predict, would be likely candidates for biological terrorist attacks – anthrax, that sort of thing. Well, someone apparently didn’t follow the rigorous safe-handling procedures correctly, as one of the boffins has contracted a disease known as tularemia, or rabbit fever.

We do not believe the reports claiming that co-workers’ suspicions were first aroused when the researcher began ordering 50-lb bags of carrots delivered to their lab. Read the rest of this entry »

Great news for men! You always thought it was true, but now scientists have confirmed it: being a bit dirty, and not obsessing over the odd discarded pizza slice laying around for a few days, is good for your immune system.

Read on as we tell you about the research, and provide you with a scientifically approved message to cut out and hand to your wife or girlfriend next time she asks you to wash the dishes. Read the rest of this entry »

Work carried out at several North American research institutes, and headed by Dr Stuart Lipton,has come up with a novel strategy for treating the terrible neurodegenerative condition called Huntington’s Disease (or Huntington’s Chorea).

They used a mouse model of the disease and found that, in the mice at least, disease progress can be halted by a drug currently being used to treat patients with Alzheimer’s. Read the rest of this entry »