The history of using mice to stand in for humans in medical experiments is replete with failures.
Guinea pigs are practically synonymous with experiments. Lab rats have become the workhorses of modern medicine. Genetics owes a huge debt to the humble fruit fly. There's almost no branch of the life sciences, in fact, that hasn't leaned heavily on one animal or another.
We can continue to make significant strides in the scientific community by exploring new stem cell research methods that do not include destroying human embryos.
Most of the scientific community believes that for the full potential of embryonic stem cell research to be reached, the number of cell lines readily available to scientists must increase.
On occasion, we at 'MythBusters' come across stories we want to test that require using a pig carcass to simulate human physiology.
Disease is not the prerogative of man and the domestic animals, so it was quite natural to see if the lower animals, with very simple organizations, showed pathological phenomena, and if so, infection, cure and immunity could be observed among them.
It's been known since 1916 that cutting back calories is beneficial in every organism it's been tested on - from yeast to worms to mice to monkeys. I think it would be a surprise if we are an exception to that rule.
What tipped the scales was that psychology involved working with rats.
We do some experiments in humans, some in mice, and there are some questions that can only be answered in nonhuman primates. It's true that you can't immediately say that those experiments will translate into human health, but nevertheless, it is obvious that having an understanding of human memory is going to be important for human health.
For a large number of problems, there will be some animal of choice, or a few such animals, on which it can be most conveniently studied.
I studied neuroscience at the cellular level, so I was looking at learning and memory in the visual cortex of rats. Neuroscience mainly exposed me to a way of thinking - about experimentation, about what you believe to be true and how you could prove it - and how to approach things in a methodical manner.
