I'm starting to wonder what's wrong with mice. Whenever a new treatment is tested in mice it seems to work wonders. Mice are tiny and short lived. They have ha

I'm starting to wonder what's wrong with mice. Whenever a new treatment is tested in mice it seems to work wonders. Mice are tiny and short lived. They have had no need to evolve a whole host of cancer and disease defense mechanism, which we as very long lived and large animals have. In fact, many cancer cures in mice are simply applications of things which humans are born with. Elephants and whales probably would be a better way to study diseases. For example, humans have one copy of an ant-tumor gene, elephants have a dozen: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2011/02/28/the-mere-existence-of-whales/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2011/02/28/the-mere-e... But mice are A LOT easier to study in the lab than large long lived animals would be. Also, spectacular sounding cure + non-specialized mass publication like Time = Do not believe.