How mice ‘listen’ with their whiskers

Mice don’t just use their whiskers as a sense of touch.

Tommi Anttonen, Postdoctoral research associate, University of Oxford • conversation
June 20, 2025 ~7 min

Scientists have figured out how to ‘see’ through mice – could humans be next?

Seeing through mouse skin is one thing, disappearing humans is something else entirely.

Timothy Hearn, Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics, Anglia Ruskin University • conversation
Sept. 27, 2024 ~6 min


City mouse or country mouse? I collect mice from Philly homes to study how they got so good at urban living

An evolutionary biologist is studying what these resilient urban pests can teach us about adaptation and evolution.

Megan Phifer-Rixey, Assistant Professor of Biology, Drexel University • conversation
March 14, 2024 ~7 min

Murderous mice attack and kill nesting albatrosses on Midway Atoll − scientists struggle to stop this gruesome new behavior

On a small, remote island in the Pacific Ocean, an unlikely predator feasts on the world’s largest albatross colony. Researchers are trying to figure out how to stop these murderous mice.

Wieteke Holthuijzen, Ph.D. Candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee • conversation
Feb. 20, 2024 ~9 min

Science experiments traditionally only used male mice – here’s why that’s a problem for women’s health

Clinical trial funders now insist studies use female participants. But it will still take a long time for our understanding of how medicine affects women to catch up.

Sarah Bailey, Senior Lecturer, Neuropharmacology, University of Bath • conversation
Aug. 15, 2023 ~8 min

In defence of rodents – why healthy ecosystems need them

Rodents are the most numerous – and least studied – of all Earth’s mammals.

Rosalind Kennerley, Co-Chair of the IUCN SSC Small Mammal Specialist Group, International Union for the Conservation of Nature • conversation
Jan. 3, 2023 ~9 min

Lyme disease protection: No vaccine yet, but an antibody shot could soon provide a season of immunity

Researchers are testing an antibody shot to protect people from Lyme disease-causing bacteria.

Mark Klempner, Professor of Medicine and Executive Vice Chancellor for MassBiologics, University of Massachusetts Medical School • conversation
Aug. 4, 2021 ~7 min

We're creating 'humanized pigs' in our ultraclean lab to study human illnesses and treatments

Medical research to benefit people is first conducted in animals. Creating a new biomedical model by inserting human immune cells into pigs may lead to new insights and treatments.

Adeline Boettcher, Technical Writer II, Iowa State University • conversation
April 12, 2021 ~8 min


Fungal microbiome: Whether mice get fatter or thinner depends on the fungi that live in their gut

Fungi are a small but important part of the gut microbiome. A new study in mice shows that how much weight mice gain on a processed food diet depends on this fungal microbiome.

Justin D. Stewart, PhD Candidate in Evolutionary Biology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam • conversation
March 5, 2021 ~5 min

The scent of sickness: 5 questions answered about using dogs – and mice and ferrets – to detect disease

Scientists are experimenting with using dogs to sniff out people infected with COVID-19. But dogs aren't the only animals with a nose for disease.

Glen J. Golden, Research Scientist/Scholar I, Colorado State University • conversation
Jan. 13, 2021 ~8 min

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