rats
-
Why Does Coffee Make Us Poop? Scientists Gave Coffee To Rats To Find Out
A good chunk of regular coffee drinkers know that coffee isn’t just great at getting them awake in the morning—it also makes them get up and go poop. But while coffee’s laxative powers are well-known, it’s not clear why exactly this happens. To get to the bottom of this mystery, some scientists decided to do…
-
Project ‘DeepSqueak’ Aims To Decipher What Mice And Rats Are Really Chattering About
The image of a lab rat is an iconic symbol of scientific research, and for good reason: These rodents are remarkably good stand-ins for human subjects because of how closely their physiology and genetic make-up resemble ours. Because of this, mice and rats are used to study everything from cancer to diabetes to Alzheimer’s disease.
-
Rat Version Of Hepatitis E Detected In A Human For The First Time
A 56-year-old man from Hong Kong has contracted the rat-specific version of hepatitis E, something never observed before in a human patient. Health officials are now scrambling to understand how this could have happened — and the possible implications.
-
South Georgia Island Has Finally Been Certified Free Of Swarms Of Rats That Feasted On Rare Birds
The mostly abandoned town of Grytviken on South Georgia island. Cropped from original panorama. Exterminators have successfully cleansed the remote British overseas territory of South Georgia island in the South Atlantic of invasive rats that, since the year 1775, had been feasting on the eggs and chicks of two species of birds found nowhere else…