The Rat That Would Not Die : Pure Pedantry

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Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.

Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.

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The Rat That Would Not Die

Category: Aminals
Posted on: January 28, 2009 8:48 PM, by NotoriousLTP

Doing behavioral experiments with rats, I can totally understand how this may have happened. This abstract speaks for itself:

A single Norway rat released on to a rat-free island was not caught for more than four months, despite intensive efforts to trap it. The rat first explored the 9.5-hectare island and then swam 400 metres across open water to another rat-free island, evading capture for 18 weeks until an aggressive combination of detection and trapping methods were deployed simultaneously. The exceptional difficulty of this capture indicates that methods normally used to eradicate rats in dense populations are unlikely to be effective on small numbers, a finding that could have global implications for conservation on protected islands.

They are tenacious and uncooperative little bastards.

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Comments

They are also loving social creatures who can be as good pets as cats and dogs.

Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | January 28, 2009 10:26 PM

And they will most certainly outlast our species.

Posted by: Mr.Mom | January 28, 2009 11:00 PM

Jack Bauer would have killed the rat within minutes. FACT.

Posted by: Ed Yong | January 29, 2009 7:16 AM

Chuck Norris would have claimed the rat was no relative of his and disowned it whilst roundhouse-kicking the nearest evolutionist.

Gregory House would have diagnosed it correctly within an hour.

Michael Egnor would have insisted that the rat was designed to evade scientists.

PZ Myers would have developed an evolutionary relationship with it and named it Evo-Devo.

Richard Dawkins would have considered the rat to be very selfish, especially in its genes.

Christopher Hitchens would have said, "Rats! This calls for a drink."

Paris Hilton would have hinted that the rat's hair was a mess and the feet don't go with its outfit.

Commander Adama would have sworn it was a Cylon.

Batman would have declared it to be the Joker in disguise....

(Hey, Ed started it!)

Posted by: Ian | January 29, 2009 10:44 AM

They are also loving social creatures who can be as good pets as cats and dogs.

A little anthropomorphic for a physiologist, there dude. "Loving"? Really?

In any case, they are also human-subsidized globetrotting weapons of mass-species destruction, and not only on islands (where their toll is greatest).

Posted by: Sven DiMilo | January 29, 2009 11:45 AM