3 ms·
Is there a reason we can't just dump tons of mice into different sets and combos of chemicals and see what happens?
by MattGaiser 6y ago
Is there a reason we can't just dump tons of mice into different sets and combos of chemicals and see what happens?
- sdenton4 6y agoI think that's basically the current system. Unfortunately, we're worried about bioaccumulation over decades, and lab mice only live a year or so... It's also worth considering the number of Giant Breakthroughs that happen with mice which fail to translate to humans. They're quite different, it turns out.
- hetspookjee 6y agoI'd wager ethical considerations would hamper such ambition.
- adrianN 6y agoThe search space is pretty big and research costs money.
- petertodd 6y agoOne problem is mice aren't humans. In many cases research done on mice ends up being overly pessimistic, because the short lifespans of mice compared to humans means there is less evolutionary pressure to be resilient to cancers and other diseases of aging. Equally, in other circumstances they'll be more resilient, because they don't live long enough to see the effects of longer term toxins. And of course, there can be differences in specific metabolic pathways. So yes, it certainly would be good to do more of that research. But there's limits to what it can tell us.
- numpad0 6y agoIt’s astounding how automated and reproducible software testing is.
- amelius 6y agoAnd yet software crashes all the time ...