This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Not such a comfort — To see how a man’s stress levels and diet might alter his shape, one might give comfort food to a stressed rat and study its penis. Researchers at the State University of […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: A jerk and a creep — “Hidden jerk in universal creep and aftershocks” may sound like the name of a Hollywood movie – and maybe some day it will be. But for now, it is exclusively […]
The 2007 publication of the Pixar movie Ratatouille presented a unique set of opportunities for academic study – a challenge which scholars have not ignored. Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of published work about the film : ● Man is a Puppet, Soul is a Rat: On Pixar’s Ratatouille in Critical Engagements: A Journal of […]
Say “rat”, say “cat”, and say “man”. Then read this study, if you want to: “Phonological similarity and trace degradation in the serial recall task: when CAT helps RAT, but not MAN,” Anthony B. Fallon, Kim Groves, and, Gerald Tehan, International Journal of Psychology, vol. 34, nos. 5/6, 1999, pp. 301-307. The photo, warped though it […]
“Animals have been marked for identification purposes for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.” – explains a new US patent awarded to Somark Innovations, Inc. of San Diego, California. The firm’s invention (marketed under the name Labstamp ® ) relates to the marking, for ID purposes, of animals, where the animal might be, say, a […]
This study, from one of the many golden ages of psychology, now supplies data for researchers who wish to try to analyze the psychology of researchers who developed an apparatus which allows for the thoroughly automated monitoring and recording of shock-elicited vocalization in rats: “An automated apparatus for recording shock elicited vocalization in the rat,” Hank […]
Pizza’s rat-sex study has been overshadowed by this video of a rat dragging a slice of pizza, which currently is entrancing the Internet: Pizza’s rat-sex study is: “Hexanic Maca extract improves rat sexual performance more effectively than methanolic and chloroformic Maca extracts,” A. F. G. Cicero, S. Piacente, A. Plaza, E. Sala, R. Arletti, and Cosimo […]
A look back at one of the classic studies about prevention of coprophagy in the rat: “Prevention of coprophagy in the rat,” Richard H. Barnes, Grace Fiala, Bette McGehee, and Ann Brown, Journal of Nutrition, vol. 63, no. 4 (1957): 489-498. The authors, at Cornell University, begin with the now-familiar words: “The contributions of coprophagy […]
Curious about what happens when you take instant coffee, separate it into components that have different molecular weights, and then stick those component separately into different test tubes that have rat spleen cells in them? If so, this is the study for you: “Influence of molecular weight on in vitro immunostimulatory properties of instant coffee,” Cláudia P. […]
Bit by bit, people work to devise improvements in procedures related to explosions. This study tells of one such effort: “Landmine-detection rats: An evaluation of reinforcement procedures under simulated operational conditions,” Amanda Mahoney, Kate Lalonde, Timothy Edwards, Christophe Cox, Bart Weetjens and Alan Poling [pictured here], Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, epub March […]