Comments on: Mice or meece?

Mice or meece?

Jon-o — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:40:02 -0800

Ever wonder where lab mice come from? [warning: flash.]

By: Jon-o

Jon-o — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:40:17 -0800

I stumbled onto this via the Google ads on a blog. I wondered, "Who, exactly, do they think is reading this blog that they'd advertise lab mice here?" Anyway, I thought this web page was hysterical and thought I'd share it.

By: BuddhaInABucket

BuddhaInABucket — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:49:48 -0800

By: longsleeves

longsleeves — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:54:09 -0800

It's nice to know that the mousies surf and have fun.

By: travis vocino

travis vocino — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:55:47 -0800

When does the escape planning start?

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:59:06 -0800

I've been courting OzGene as potential customers for my genetically-engineered-mouse-tracking-database-software for some time (Hey! I've been in that basement!).

By: smackfu

smackfu — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:05:06 -0800

This is so surreal. And awesome. I wish I was in the market for some Australian GM mices. Is that the Village People (in mice form) on the Media page? (Don't miss the Japanese page.)

By: Jon-o

Jon-o — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:14:51 -0800

I wish I was in the market for some Australian GM mices I wonder how they're delivered. Maybe we should all chip in and buy some mice.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:35:13 -0800

I wonder how they're delivered. I can tell you that! They're delivered in a cardboard box--about the size of a pizza box if you made it about 5 inches thicker. Instead of airholes--these are very precious mice which must remain 'sterile' in a sense--there are gaps in the sides of the box that are covered with a kind of paper filter material. (People at customs often poke they're fingers through this filter material, which may render the mice worthless.) The mice are provided with food and water, of course; if you're sending mice on your own, vs. from a company, apple slices do very well in providing the mice both.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:36:07 -0800

OMG: "their" of course.

By: easternblot

easternblot — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 21:20:26 -0800

I clicked the "mates" link, figuring it had to do with mouse mating, and I thought it would be about germline transmission, F1 and F2 generations, etcetera, but ... they mean mates as in friends and it's just a bunch of links to other sites. Silly Aussies.

By: NucleophilicAttack

NucleophilicAttack — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 21:24:52 -0800

jax.org, criver.com, taconic.com

By: Rumple

Rumple — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 21:51:53 -0800

For those mice with the naughty gene

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 23:26:38 -0800

$600! Go to the store and buy a butcher's cleaver...

By: gren

gren — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 02:40:06 -0800

heh, I was expecting a flash movie about yiffing or something...this is *way* stranger.

By: SteveInMaine

SteveInMaine — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 06:06:03 -0800

If you're in the States, mice generally come from here. I'll have to admit the Jackson Lab website isn't nearly as fun as Ozgene's. You should also note that Jackson Lab is sited in one of the more beautiful places on earth, Bar Harbor, Maine.

By: LeLiLo

LeLiLo — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 07:21:39 -0800

If you're in the States, mice generally come from here. Mice from the Jackson Lab go all over the world, not just around the U.S. From their web site: Each year, the Laboratory supplies approximately 2 million JAX® Mice to the global research community from more than 2,700 varieties, 97% of which are available only from The Jackson Laboratory. Two million mice a year! I'm about a mile down the road from the place, often use their library when I feel like getting out of the house, and have many times talked about the Lab while leading bus tours through Acadia National Park. (Along one section of Acadia's Park Loop Road, you have park land on the right, and lab property on the left.) It's interesting to me how little known the Lab is despite its importance over the last 75 years. (I think they're trying to have it both ways — be well-known enough to attract grant and research money, yet stay below the radar of animal rights protestors.) Check out this list of what's come about as a result of research there, including tissue, organ, and bone marrow transplants in humans; and the world's first computer databases for mammalian genetics. Access to the mouse areas is strictly controlled, and almost no one is allowed in. So even though I've never heard of such things, maybe — just like the OzGene mice — they're in there riding surfboards.

By: printdevil

printdevil — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 08:29:38 -0800

It's always weird to explain to my friends about the Jackson Lab -- my mom is a researcher there. "Well, it's the world center for mouse genetics. But it's on the coast of Maine. And it's difficult to get too easily in the winter." Second Lelilo's comment about the mouse areas. I've been to the lab many times, but never seen the breeding zones. There was a big fire there about 10-15 years ago that had moderately serious repercussions in terms of slowing down some research nationwide.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 10:16:04 -0800

AAAAhhh ha ha ha ha! The model number on that guillotine... DCAP. De-cap! Someone had fun with that I see. God I'm a geek. I once personally dispatched 48 small rodents in one day using such a device. For quick, humane brain collection, much more user-friendly than a butcher knife, TOCT. The decap results in instant death, which is actually amazingly more humane than a lethal sedative or suffocation.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 10:33:22 -0800

I initially misread that as "quick human brain collection," which made sense but... well, I'm glad I took a second look.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:36:33 -0800

I actually heard a lecture from a guy the other day about a facility which breeds mice and goats and pigs for "genetic work." Some of the crowd sort of mumbled and the guy responded with something like "oh come on, they're worth millions of dollars so they are well taken care of." I wonder what a million dollar goat eats for breakfast...