<story><title>Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?</title><url>https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/mouse-heaven-or-mouse-hell</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>h2odragon</author><text>One of the worst jobs i ever had, occasionally required us to drown some mice. Excess population &amp;#x2F; euthanized &amp;quot;feeders&amp;quot; for pet snakes. The method was to put several mice into a small wire cage, and then submerge the cage in water. Usually I filled a bucket with hot water, beforehand, and made this operation fast as possible. Dunk and done.&lt;p&gt;One day I came across a cow orker attempting to do this job (I had been busy and it was usually my task); they&amp;#x27;d put the cage in the sink and were gradually filling the basin with cold water, mice swimming and grasping each other and etc. Panic and horror. Nasty.&lt;p&gt;Somehow, one mother mouse wound up on top of the pile, holding one almost weaned baby. As the water passed her knees she stood up and held the baby over her head. Prepared to die and use every moment left keeping the kid alive.&lt;p&gt;I had to adopt her and her baby after seeing that. They were never exceptional as pet mice but I still feel good about saving those two.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>shanusmagnus</author><text>Once in grad school I went to a talk where another grad student was presenting on his fear research with mice.  Many powerpoint details unfold of the hell he and his advisor had contrived to make the mice chronically afraid, and to be able to quantify the fear induced and its effects.  I learned that when mice get scared enough they shit excessively.  In the presentation of results he lingers on a graph, and says, for effect: &amp;quot;That&amp;#x27;s right, they were scared shitless.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Hilarity.  The room bubbles with laughter.  Just enough transgression.&lt;p&gt;I remember in that moment bubbling with rage.  A famous and well-regarded paragon of the field [1] who had recently come to the university to give a talk spent his career characterizing animal emotions, especially of mice and rats.  He revealed their rich emotional worlds in glorious detail.  The presentor, his advisor, many of us in the department knew -- or should have -- how un-funny the joke was.  We were perfectly positioned to know it.&lt;p&gt;Despite knowing what I knew, I didn&amp;#x27;t say anything.  That silence is still among the top few of my regrets.  I guess I learned the weight of doing the right thing in a packed room full of people with contrary opinions, and learned that I was way less strong &amp;#x2F; bold &amp;#x2F; principled than I had believed myself to be; which was remarkable, as that bar was already low.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Jaak_Panksepp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Jaak_Panksepp&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?</title><url>https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/mouse-heaven-or-mouse-hell</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>h2odragon</author><text>One of the worst jobs i ever had, occasionally required us to drown some mice. Excess population &amp;#x2F; euthanized &amp;quot;feeders&amp;quot; for pet snakes. The method was to put several mice into a small wire cage, and then submerge the cage in water. Usually I filled a bucket with hot water, beforehand, and made this operation fast as possible. Dunk and done.&lt;p&gt;One day I came across a cow orker attempting to do this job (I had been busy and it was usually my task); they&amp;#x27;d put the cage in the sink and were gradually filling the basin with cold water, mice swimming and grasping each other and etc. Panic and horror. Nasty.&lt;p&gt;Somehow, one mother mouse wound up on top of the pile, holding one almost weaned baby. As the water passed her knees she stood up and held the baby over her head. Prepared to die and use every moment left keeping the kid alive.&lt;p&gt;I had to adopt her and her baby after seeing that. They were never exceptional as pet mice but I still feel good about saving those two.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>michaelgrafl</author><text>Fucking hell did I just read?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve just read Flowers for Algernon again a few weeks ago. Don&amp;#x27;t pull my heart strings like that.</text></comment>