The good:
I sat down on the sofa this morning with my oatmeal and big cup of tea, and switched on the local TV news. The first thing I saw was one of my colleagues, nervously pipetting culture medium into culture dishes and talking about his findings that came out in a C/N/S journal1 today.
The bad:
A couple of hours later I went to put my lunch in the office fridge, and found a packet of lab mouse food (“bacon flavour!”) next to my milk.
Science isn’t dull!2 PI CV updates are a different story however…
Right, I’m off to watch the hockey with historically low expectations.
———-
1. For the non-scientists: Cell/Nature/Science, i.e. top-tier, very prestigious.
2. Bonus point to anyone who can tell me which British TV show used that catchphrase in the early 90s!
Do mice even like bacon? I thought they liked cheese. Thanks for the pick of the week =)
I have no idea, I’ve never worked with mice! And, you’re welcome!
It always is interesting, isn’t it?And was there an explanation for the bacon-flavored mouse food in the fridge?
Through lots of intensive study, I and other labmates have discerned that lab mice are a big fan of Jamba Juice. And getting sugar spaz highs. Anything is possible in this crazy world.
Wow congrats to your colleague. thanks for the comment shout out again, though that one is a bit embarrassing…We’re in OT!!! Yeah!
we won!!! we won!!!!
“I have no idea, I’ve never worked with mice! “oh yea of small fortunes đ I was surprised to see Canucks that well but it must have been fun being there. Leafs did.. well… really bad? Saturday…. đ
I find it really disturbing (though not all that surprising) that mice like bacon…but why on earth is someone manufacturing this and selling to research labs?!? I thought rodent chow was supposed to be optimized for best nutrition…I can’t imagine that bacon would comprise much of the natural diet of most mice. Ick!
Bean-Mom, no explanation that made a whole lot of sense to me, but at least the lab manager knew it was there and was OK with that…Hermitage, I am not going to ask how you know that!SM, I know! I can’t believe we beat Detroit! Maybe everything will be OK until Luuuuuuuuu comes back…Chall, deliberate choice! My PhD supervisor wanted to move into mouse work, but on his training course one of the mice bit him, and he pushed the decision back until after I’d already finished. I wasn’t actually at the game unfortunately – Monday night = watching from the sofa without even a beer.AA, it’s some kind of specialised food for a specific mouse strain. Our lab does a load of knock out and transgenic work, but I don’t know which strain requires the bacon food!
Whatever strain it is, it’s probably a good model for heart disease!
What, even if it’s just bacon flavouring?!I almost feel the need to go and take a photo of the food for you guys. But how to do it without anyone seeing me and thinking I’m terminally weird? Hmmmm.
Peanut butter is tops for mouse traps. Cheese gets you nowhere!To actually go to the olympics – dream come true territory. Hope you get some tickets.viv in nz
Yup, done the peanut butter thing! A couple of mice found their way into our basement last winter. The traps didn’t work half as well as our friend’s cat, who we borrowed for a weekend. I doubt any mice would last long this winter – not only do we have our two cats upstairs, but our tenant has two more in the basement!
Could have been worse, a nice box of maggots maybe?
Eeeep! [shudders]. Maggots are my Room 101. I’m so glad Mr E Man is not into fishing!