One thing that I have always had a heart for growing up was animals. I remember around age 9 my friend and I went on a crusade to adopt/sponsor animals from the Turtle Back Zoo. We opened up a lemonade stand and posted signs on all the blocks within a three mile radius to promote our stand. Sadly, nobody saw our cause as viable, we only gained 25 cents from my dad (who didn’t even drink the lemonade), and one of my neighbors threatened to call the police since posting signs without a permit on public property was supposedly illegal. Who knew that at the age of 9?
Growing up I have heard all types of opinions on using animals for scientific research. There are the people who are purely against it, like one friend who would rather see prisoners be injected with experimental drugs than risk harming an animal. Or people who think testing on animals is a great starter. And, although conflicted in how I feel about this topic, I have begun to see the benefit animals bring to the world of science in general.
In recent R&D Daily items I found an article on naked mole rats and how these blind, shrewish creatures hold clues to surviving strokes. It turns out that these adorable, furless rodents’ brain tissue can withstand extreme hypoxia, according to the press release issued by the Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, for periods exceeding a half-hour. Studying African naked mole rats that live tight, foul areas underground, John Larson and Thomas Park found the creatures to show systemic hypoxia adaptations, which they believe to be a result of evolutionary adaptations for surviving in a chronically low-oxygen environment. This importance of this study is that these tiny creatures may help these researchers identify the mechanisms that allow longer neuronal survival after such accidents or medical emergencies, which may suggest ways to avoid permanent human brain damage.
However, not only are animals used for biology purposes, they are also used to further material science. Also found in a recent R&D Daily item, deer may possess what a material science researcher dreams of – their antlers. A researcher from the Univ. of York, John Currey, has become fascinated by the mechanical properties of antler. According to Currey, the antlers look as if they were dry, but nobody ever knew if the bone was dry during their dueling competitions. Through the research, Currey found that the tissue in the antler was about 2.4 times tougher than that of normal wet bone and it could survive impact that are six times greater that impacts that shatter wet femurs. Rendering the antlers both stiff and tough, material scientists long to make a material that meets these standards.
And, although I still am not sure about how I feel about testing experimental drugs on animals, I sure am thankful for the advances that animals allow science.
