3 ms·
One reason is that "cures X in mice" doesn't actually mean "cures X in mice" -- it usually means "cures X in mice which have a genetic mutation which causes the
by cperciva 12y ago
One reason is that "cures X in mice" doesn't actually mean "cures X in mice" -- it usually means "cures X in mice which have a genetic mutation which causes them to always develop X". (And sometimes it means "cures X in mice to which we have surgically performed X", e.g., X = spine severing.)
For example, studies of type 1 diabetes usually take place in BB rats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biobreeding_rat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biobreeding_rat) or NOD mice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOD_mice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOD_mice). These animals are known to exhibit the symptoms of type 1 diabetes; but we don't know if their disease progression exactly matches that of humans with type 1 diabetes (and we can't know, because we don't know exactly how type 1 diabetes progresses in humans). It's entirely possible that a cure for NOD mice simply blocks a disease pathway which doesn't occur in humans anyway.
- tempestn 12y agoGood point, but a minor nitpick: using X to represent multiple things, especially in the same sentence, is confusing. You could always use other letters, like Y!
- Steuard 12y agoTo my eye, the previous comment was using X to represent the same thing, at least within each individual phrase. (Plugging in "X=spine severing" into both uses in that example seems to work just fine, for instance.)
- tempestn 12y agoAh, I suppose you're right. I guess my brain automatically rejected the notion of "cures spine severing", so assumed it must be something different. Apologies to parent!