but yeah the experiment probably ended with the poor souls being killed off bc science still hasn't found a way of keeping them alive I guess. I'm friends with a rescue group and it's literally illegal for labs to give away animals after experiments, no matter if it's non-invasive behavioural shit, they need to be killed. The group does some backroom deals to get the rodents out

death to SScientists I guess

also the rats in the thread pic look like one of ours, Jelly (and two previous, Soy and Peanut)

[–] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 32 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

rodent version of a Cybertruck

Does that mean it was instantly destroyed upon touching it?

[–] aebletrae@hexbear.net 7 points 15 hours ago

How do you issue a recall notice to a rat?

[–] Des@hexbear.net 16 points 18 hours ago

fuck the amount of sucking up to Elon that's going to happen over the next years from the scientific community

nobody wants to have their grant money yanked i totally get it. but he doesn't care, he's not reading your articles, he's coming for you all stop sucking up to him

[–] AntiOutsideAktion@hexbear.net 20 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Rats in nightmarish conditions have one good day when the scientists torturing them take them out of their sterile cages to study fun.

[–] qcop@hexbear.net 15 points 18 hours ago

And then gas them once they are done and just buy a new batch for the next experiment they devised...

Animal breeding facilities for laboratories are also abhorrent.

[–] ElChapoDeChapo@hexbear.net 8 points 16 hours ago

This is the first step towards mice and rats piloting human sized mecha that will be giant from their perspective

[–] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 21 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (2 children)

Has to be one of the best jobs on the planet. Getting paid to bring joy to rats, and then studying ways to enhance that joy.

EDIT: Turns out this may actually be a horrific job despite getting to witness and create temporary joy, see comments below

[–] dat_math@hexbear.net 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

From the article in Neuroscience about the 12 week experiment (CW clinical gore):

spoiler

Long-Evans male (N = 20) and female (N = 20) rats, approximately 6 weeks of age, were obtained from Envigo (Madison, WI, USA).

After completing all behavioral assessments, rats were anesthetized by exposure to isoflurane and were transcardially perfused at 40 mL/min using a MasterFlex L/S perfusion pump (Cole Parmer; Vernon Hills, IL, USA). During perfusions, approximately 100 mL of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution was pumped through the brain to clear all blood, followed by approximately 200 mL of 4 % paraformaldehyde for tissue fixation purposes. Brains were then extracted and divided sagittally so that the right hemisphere could be processed using the FD Rapid GolgiStain TM Kit (FD NeuroTechnologies, Inc., Columbia, MD, USA), and the left hemisphere could be used for immunohistochemical processing.

Long Evans rats mean life expectancy is about 3 years. This is one of the tamer experimental protocols, where the animals were not required to undergo terrifically disfigurative surgery to collect data or control conditions in vivo. I have great difficulty imagining how hard it would be to become even slightly attached to those animals and still complete the research duties.

[–] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Well colour me corrected, I would have assumed they'd let their rats live out the rest of the lives peacefully but I suppose not. Pretty fucked up then.

[–] dat_math@hexbear.net 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Sorry :(

[–] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 4 points 13 hours ago

Not your fault that the world of animal testing is irredeemably fucked even if this one particular experiment happens to bring rats an immense amount of joy before their lives are unceremoniously ended to study their brains that will probably end up being used by a marketing firm in 2027 to sell funkopops or something!