Scientists' Mouse Fight Club 193
An anonymous reader writes "To study how aggression, fighting, and winning change the brain, scientists set up a tournament of mice fights. They watched as the lab rodents took a break from their hum-drum existence and battled it out (however, the researchers broke the first rule of Fight Club by publishing a paper about their findings [abstract]). They found clear evidence of the 'winner effect,' in which a mouse that has just won a fight maintains elevated levels of testosterone and aggression, and is therefore more likely to win the next bout. Interestingly, the winner effect was strongest in mice that were fighting in their own cages — i.e., those that had home-field advantage."
Are you pondering what I'm pondering? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Second Rule? (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't this illegal? (Score:4, Funny)
I mean, surely if cockfighting or dogfighting is illegal...
Where can I buy mice in bulk? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Where can I buy mice in bulk? (Score:3, Funny)
And then you'd catch myxomatosis and be hyper-aggressive for months.
Rage Virus (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Women... (Score:5, Funny)
Cat Fight!!!
Mickey vs. Mighty (Score:5, Funny)
I know I'm not supposed to talk about it, but I once saw Mickey take on Mighty. Now, I put my money on Mighty. But, the bout was at Disney World. Mickey won in less than a minute. Then, all hopped up on testosterone, he basically took Jerry's head off in the next match.
I have seen stuff man. I was there. I have memories. Bad, bad memories.
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:3, Funny)
It wouldn't surprise me if it was perfectly legal to stage dog fights or cock fights in the name of science provided you do enough paperwork in advance. It's just the type of people who stage dog fights or cock fights are not the type that to do the paperwork.
the romans did this with prisoners / gladiators so (Score:3, Funny)
the romans did this with prisoners / gladiators so why do we need to do this now with Mouses?
Re:Women... (Score:3, Funny)
I fully support this. Especially if mud is involved.
Re:Where can I buy mice in bulk? (Score:3, Funny)
So your going to make a bunch of mice fight each other to create testosterone then eat the mice? The steroid market is a very weird place...
Re:the romans did this with prisoners / gladiators (Score:4, Funny)
Because the Romans weren't conducting a controlled scientific experiment? Because the Romans didn't write down their findings, nor were they attempting to answer a scientific question to begin with? Because what we know about gladiator fights is limited and uncertain?
I can't think of an analogy for how stupid this is; that's how stupid it is.
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:2, Funny)
I'm not well versed in the fighting techniques [...] of mice.
Potentially the greatest famous last words ever.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
How did they get them to fight?
The tricky part was getting the little gloves and silk shorts on them.
Don King??? (Score:3, Funny)
So, these mice basically got a false sense of confidence that might have gotten themselves a boost, and managed to avoid better fighters in the process.
But, if the fights hadn't been fixed, they would have lost handily to the, er, undermouse.
Definitely sounds like real boxing to me. :-P Wake me up when one mouse wins by tap-out.
Re:Mickey vs. Mighty (Score:3, Funny)
I'm not surprised. I heard he killed seven in one blow.
Re:Mickey vs. Mighty (Score:2, Funny)
My money's on Danger.
Man.. (Score:1, Funny)
I see in fight club the strongest and smartest mice who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squeaking. God damn it, an entire generation running mazes, growing ears on their backs; slaves with white fur. Advertising has us chasing cheese and water, working jobs we hate so we can live in cages too big for our needs. We're the middle children of history, mouse. No purpose or place. We have no Great Plague, No Great Famine. Our Great Plague's injected in labs... our Great Famine is our own thirst for the wild sewers. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be living in piles of garbage, and mating sporadically, and following along the bottoms of walls to bigger piles of garbage. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
Re:I hate PITA however... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, that just sounds like sour dough to me. I don't see any way they could have performed this experiment any more ethically. I mean I don't want to seem rye, but understanding how mice brains work, which gives us a little knowledge of how our own brains work, is hugely valuable to humans and is worth a little cruelty (as little as necessary mind you).
P.S. Have you tried it with falafel?
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Second Rule? (Score:3, Funny)
You should seek mental health. Many people who lived to be miserable and grumpy started out by not having a sense of humor.