Thousands of Lab Mice Lost In Sandy Flooding

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Thousands of Lab Mice Lost In Sandy Flooding

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 2, 2012 @09:41AM from the george-bush-doesn't-care-about-mouse-people dept.

An anonymous reader writes "While New York University's Langone Medical Center in lower Manhattan was the site of heroism as 260 patients were evacuated from flooded floors and a nearly complete loss of power, similar floods at NYU's nearby Smilow Research Building killed thousands of laboratory mice, including genetically altered specimens in-bred over many generations as research subjects for melanoma and other diseases. Other laboratory animals, cells, and living tissue used in medical research were also lost; because of the gestation period involved, some projects were likely set back a number of years. Past experience with storms such as Allison in Houston and Katrina in New Orleans has shown that keeping laboratory animals in basements is not good practice, but research institutions keep doing it anyway."

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I'd be MOST worried about contamination by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 09:46 · Score: 0, Flamebait

See subject-line above - Contamination of the surrounding area with ANY disease-related material that could get to human beings & infect them, causing a plague & what-not!
APK
P.S.=> No, I haven't read the article - I only briefly cursorily "scanned" it in the "recent" section here earlier today in the A.M., so, IF I've "got this all wrong"? Give me a pass... the above was the 1st thing that came to mind here is all!
... apk
1. Re:I'd be MOST worried about contamination by Cockatrice_hunter · 2012-11-02 10:08 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Most of the time you breed for genetic anomalies. Things like color-blindness, Huntington's repetitions, predeliction for cancer (cell cycle/apoptosis genes) are what are bred in. They are highly unlikely to be transmitted.
I pity them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 09:47 · Score: 1, Insightful

Poor mice. I love rodents. I really do. Must have been horrible for them to see and feel the influx of water without being able to escape or do anything.
1. Re:I pity them by Froboz23 · 2012-11-02 10:23 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  The article failed to mention that the cages of Algernon and Jonathon were found vacant.
  
  --
  Take off every Sig. For great justice.
2. Re:I pity them by Longjmp · 2012-11-02 12:26 · Score: 1
  
  Well, some of them might have had some fun.
  
  --
  There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.
3. Re:I pity them by Oonagh · 2012-11-02 19:51 · Score: 1
  
  I thought that right off too, but then I remembered all the horrible and painful things they undergo in testing, and at least now they are out of it. :/
4. Re:I pity them by LeopardMechanic · 2012-11-03 15:38 · Score: 1
  
  Future NY Times article: Genetically altered mice released by Sandy mate with indigenous mice to produce mutant offspring. An upper west side 67 year old women and her dog were attacked by a seemingly well organized group of outsized common mice. Witnesses claim that the mice, some the size of small pigs, would hesitate and direct their attention to what appeared to be their leader whenever they heard a series of repetitive high pitched squeaks. The woman was last seen bleeding profusely from the nose and ears as she yelled for her doorman and was pulled into a flooded culvert that drains central park. The dog, a registered competitive champion, chewed through itâ(TM)s leather leash just as the woman went under for the last time. The name of the dog is being withheld pending notification of relatives.
*turns off TV* by cultiv8 · 2012-11-02 09:47 · Score: 1

Time to stop watching The Walking Dead.

--
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
1. Re:*turns off TV* by djhertz · 2012-11-02 14:01 · Score: 1
  
  This storm + That show = Need more shotgun shells
  At least I know how to brew my own beer.
  
  --
  Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise - William Shakespeare
Will No One Think of the Mice? by Phrogman · 2012-11-02 09:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

Its stupid to keep the lab animals in the basement obviously, if only from the perspective of setting research back years as was pointed out, let alone the needless killing of thousands of animals. The basements should be kept for the adminstration staff, or at least the lawyers...

--
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
1. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by hutsell · 2012-11-02 10:01 · Score: 1
  
  Its stupid to keep the lab animals in the basement obviously, if only from the perspective of setting research back years as was pointed out, let alone the needless killing of thousands of animals. The basements should be kept for the adminstration staff, or at least the lawyers...
  (Or the obligatory): Preferably the IT staff, since it will remind them of their Mom's basement, making most feel right at home. It's a win win for everyone.
  
  --
  Yesterday's Weirdness is Tomorrow's Reason Why
2. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:39 · Score: 0
  
  Has anyone seen my stapler?
3. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 11:03 · Score: 0
  
  also ideal for safety, you can reliably assume IT staff can swim, being such a white profession
4. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 11:14 · Score: 0
  
  Which is more expensive to replace rodents or servers?
5. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by westlake · 2012-11-02 11:53 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Its stupid to keep the lab animals in the basement obviously, if only from the perspective of setting research back years, let alone the needless killing of thousands of animals.
  Manhattan real estate is expensive.
  The hospital board can put income generating wards, clinics, operating rooms, cafeterias, restaurants, shops and other services on an upper floor or they can chose to house the animals there.
  
  Research centers often stash their animal labs underground. That makes it easier to store heavy animal equipment like cage washers, autoclaves, and giant tanks of fish, and the lack of windows helps technicians control the light-dark cycle. Labs in California use basement cages to keep them safe from earthquakes, and other building managers like to have the excrement and waste sequestered down below.
  Institutions like to keep their animals from public view. After all, even with the basements dry, these research centers are the site of massive rodent slaughter: The several thousand mice that drowned in Monday's flood represent just a tiny fractionâ"0.002 percent, perhapsâ"of all the mice and rats that die for research every year. It's ugly work, even when it's useful and important. Ken Kornberg, an architect who's worked on more than 400 biomedical research projects, points out that basements are more secure from activists and protesters.
  
  Sandy's Toll on Medical Research
6. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by HiThere · 2012-11-02 12:13 · Score: 1
  
  Genetically standardized strains of mice are MUCH more expensive to replace.
  
  --
  
  I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
7. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by ByteSlicer · 2012-11-02 12:20 · Score: 1
  
  Its stupid to keep the lab animals in the basement
  Unless they put it full of eels...
8. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by Kell+Bengal · 2012-11-02 13:59 · Score: 1
  
  That's what the hovercraft is for.
  
  --
  Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
  altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
9. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 14:34 · Score: 0
  
  It would be more difficult to house them above ground for a few reasons. First, the sheer amount of material that a facility can go through on a daily basis is amazing... having immediate access to the loading dock and trash areas is essential. Then the space required for autoclaves, washer units and all the associated equipment required for air purification, water purification, biosecurity and procedure spaces makes it a much more expensive proposition. Then there's the actual housing space required. Our facility recently underwent a major expansion, and I was able to see a lot of the construction involved, it takes a ton of space. Many universities also house more than just mice, there's various other rodents, cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs, and sheep. I couldn't imagine waiting for the elevators all day.
  Wish everyone who's affected by this tragedy the best of luck.
10. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 16:35 · Score: 0
  
  I would be concerned about it being bio hazard, and it getting out into the rivers or oceans and casuing some freak occurrence. They do not seem to concerned with it however which is slightly more disturbing.
11. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by goodmanj · 2012-11-02 16:51 · Score: 1
  
  Basements are also more secure, which makes it easier to protect the mouse colony from animal rights lunatics. Yes, this is a serious concern when installing animal colonies. Yes, it means animal rights activists bear some indirect responsibility for these deaths.
12. Re:Will No One Think of the Mice? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 17:26 · Score: 0
  
  Has anyone seen my stapler?
  Bill: "Milt, we're gonna need to go ahead and move you downstairs into storage B. We have some new people coming in, and we need all the space we can get. So if you could just go ahead and pack up your stuff and move it down there, that would be terrific, OK?"
  Milton: "Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler."
  Milton: [on the phone] "And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire."
  Peter: "This isn't so bad, huh? Makin' bucks, gettin' exercise, workin' outside."
  Lawrence: "Fuckin' A."
  Peter: "Fuckin' A."
royal family?? by TheGratefulNet · 2012-11-02 09:49 · Score: 2, Funny

including genetically altered specimens in-bred over many generations
didn't know the royals were in NY during the storm.
(I kid, I kid!)

--

--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
1. Re:royal family?? by mrbluze · 2012-11-02 10:10 · Score: 1
  
  including genetically altered specimens in-bred over many generations
  didn't know the royals were in NY during the storm.
  (I kid, I kid!)
  They are keeping goats there too?
  
  --
  Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
2. Re:royal family?? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:11 · Score: 0, Offtopic
  
  " nonpartisan " !?! Bullshit. How stupid do you think we are---
3. Re:royal family?? by Froboz23 · 2012-11-02 10:43 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Stupid enough to post about the Tax Report article in the Dead Lab Mice discussion?
  
  --
  Take off every Sig. For great justice.
Don't worry by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 09:50 · Score: 0

They'll find their way out. They're pretty good with mazes.
The Basement by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 09:55 · Score: 5, Interesting

Animal research at my university was done in a nondescript building absent from the maps, with a front only about twenty feet wide (other buildings were wrapped around it). You needed a key-card to open the front door, and the building had a huge basement for cattle. The rationale for such a design is to make it difficult for animal rights extremists to break-in. I suspect other universities keep animals in the basement for the same reason.
1. Re:The Basement by snspdaarf · 2012-11-02 13:22 · Score: 1
  
  I hear Texas A&M keeps them in the basement for an entirely different reason...
  
  --
  Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
2. Re:The Basement by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 18:27 · Score: 0
  
  Thanks for your info, you just made it a lot easier to gain entry.
What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain? by TigerPlish · 2012-11-02 09:55 · Score: 4, Funny

The thing we should've done years ago, Pinky: Move to Arizona. I hear it's dry there. *ptooie* Now shut up and keep rowing. We'll make it out of the parking lot yet.
NARRF yes, right Brain!

--
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
1. Re:What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain? by funwithBSD · 2012-11-02 10:31 · Score: 1
  
  Hardest hit: Regis Philben.
  
  --
  Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
Basement Are Better for Isolation by guttentag · 2012-11-02 09:55 · Score: 4, Insightful

...keeping laboratory animals in basements is not good practice, but research institutions keep doing it anyway.
The point of keeping them in the basement is to isolate them from outside influences that might affect your results. For instance, if you put them in the building lobby, they might get malenoma from the sun, or PETA might steal them and eat them ("People Eating Tasty Animals"). Basements are better.
1. Re:Basement Are Better for Isolation by MaXintosh · 2012-11-02 09:58 · Score: 2
  
  This. And and unfortunately, the otherside is that administrations want to keep the 'dirty' bits of science away from where students study or alumni pay over-priced sums of money for sporting tickets. Point in case is when some animal facilities were told they had to move in Salt Lake City because they were going to be too close to the Olympic venues. They, too, got shoved in various basements.
2. Re:Basement Are Better for Isolation by dunng808 · 2012-11-02 10:43 · Score: 1
  
  Cue up "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and we will all join in on the refrain.
  
  --
  Gary Dunn
  Open Slate Project
3. Re:Basement Are Better for Isolation by stephanruby · 2012-11-02 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  The point of keeping them in the basement is to isolate them from outside influences that might affect your results.
  I thought the entire point of keeping the mices in the basements was because we could never keep the undergrads consistently in those black-mold infested basements in the first place, those undergrads would always make their way back up the stairs, or through the elevators, sneaking themselves into the faculty lounges/hall ways by entering behind someone with a card key, or simply begging someone to let them in on some bogus excuse.
  So they ended up sleeping on our couches, gnawing at our food within our kitchen cabinets and our fridges, and dirtying our cleaner bathrooms with all their droppings and their marxists anti-war pro-Obama graffitis.
  It just wasn't a pretty sight. It wasn't sanitary either.
4. Re:Basement Are Better for Isolation by AHuxley · 2012-11-02 11:17 · Score: 1
  
  http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/21/politics/bio-germ-investigation/index.html
  You have to wonder how many labs, private labs within larger complexes got federal grant cash for exploring 'dirty' bits.
  Lets hope a wave of fuel and human waste kept everything 'clean'
  Bio-safety level 2 for all that extra funding :)
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Not just dead mice/lost research.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:01 · Score: 4, Informative

What the news also isn't reporting, is that because of this flooding, there is all sorts of hazardous medical waste floating in the water underneath/in NYU medical center.
I would expect this to become a problem; there are millions of gallons of water which likely cannot simply be pumped out into drainage systems, and may have to be treated first, or removed for treatment at a later time.
The failure of NYU's backup systems may be one of the biggest localized issues to come out of this disaster. Time will tell,
1. Re:Not just dead mice/lost research.... by YodasEvilTwin · 2012-11-02 10:43 · Score: 1
  
  Proof?
2. Re:Not just dead mice/lost research.... by nEoN+nOoDlE · 2012-11-02 11:07 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  They could just bottle it up and sell it as homeopathic medicine.
  
  --
  Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
3. Re:Not just dead mice/lost research.... by geekoid · 2012-11-02 11:53 · Score: 2
  
  SInce it will actually have molecules of a drug, then no.
  
  --
  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
4. Re:Not just dead mice/lost research.... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-03 14:13 · Score: 0
  
  Wait - New York is flooded and suddenly there is hazardous waste roaming about?
  Wasn't it that way BEFORE the hurricane? LOL
Pinky and the Brain? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:01 · Score: 0

Let the conspiracy theories begin!
And let us hope there is nothing of substance to back them up that arises to back them up...
We may never know what all the known and unknown labs were working on or what escaped into the wild.
Captcha: "heralds",,,amusing, foreboding, or prophetic? or maybe just pathetic....
Suggestion by DaveAtFraud · 2012-11-02 10:04 · Score: 1

Move the lawyers to the basement and move the lab rats to the offices the lawyers vacated. Anyone else with nearby offices will porobably consider having the lab rats instead of the lawyers as neighbors to be an improvement. If there's flooding again, we lose a few lawyers, the world is an even better place and the rats survive.
On the other hand, we need to make sure a few lawyers survive. They do serve a purpose since, after all, there are some things that even a rat won't do.
Cheers,
Dave

--
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
1. Re:Suggestion by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:28 · Score: 0
  
  But those big windows that the lawyers demand in their offices could potentially damage the mice and cause skin cancer that will not be nearly as much a factor if the mice are kept out of the sun. Very important for research. Let the lawyers live with their cancer and die slowly. Besides, they deserve said slower death over the faster (although probably still painful) death that these mice were given.
Mutated zombie mice out of containment by Arancaytar · 2012-11-02 10:04 · Score: 1

You know it's just a matter of time.
1. Re:Mutated zombie mice out of containment by Velex · 2012-11-02 11:20 · Score: 1
  
  Either that or Secret of NIMH.
  
  --
  Join the Slashcott! Stay away entirely Feb 10 thru Feb 17! Close all tabs to prevent autorefresh!
Sad by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:09 · Score: 0, Offtopic

This depresses me more than the crushed homes. Unlike the people, the mice didn't chose to live on mass in a flood plane in homes not build to withstand the elements.
I remember this movie. by jtownatpunk.net · 2012-11-02 10:13 · Score: 1

Keep an eye out for rodents stealing extension cords.
On the other hand by oldhack · 2012-11-02 10:14 · Score: 3, Funny

So, mutant diseased rats in NYC sewer... what's new?

--
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
1. Re:On the other hand by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 11:08 · Score: 0
  
  They might mate with stockbrokers.
Obama's Fault by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:15 · Score: 0

You should thank Obama, he switched on HAARP to get attention away from Benghazi and the various other blunders.
1. Re:Obama's Fault by Seeteufel · 2012-11-02 23:32 · Score: 1
  
  Please submit a few details about HAARP.
Rats of NIMH by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:18 · Score: 0, Funny

Really, no Rats of NIMH comments yet?
So the rats used weather-altering technology to facilitate their escape to the fields, where they will help save helpless normal mice from evil farmers and their plows.
mod me down please by toxygen01 · 2012-11-02 10:45 · Score: 0

Really, are we talking scientific mouse deaths on slashdot?
1. Re:mod me down please by CharmElCheikh · 2012-11-02 10:53 · Score: 1
  
  When I read the summary (I didn't read TFA, ha!) i thought by "lost" they meant lost, not dead. Meaning, genetically modified mice are now free to breed with the normal mice in the wild. What would be the consequences of that, I have no idea. It depends how modified were the mice. Will they bring us new diseases? Make mice stronger, leading to overbreeding? I can't see anything good coming out of that anyway.
  
  --
  My /. user ID is probably higher than yours
2. Re:mod me down please by toxygen01 · 2012-11-02 11:03 · Score: 1
  
  honestly, please read TFA
3. Re:mod me down please by Baloroth · 2012-11-02 11:56 · Score: 1
  
  Yes? Why not? The loss of those mice sets back some research half a decade. That might mean 5 years when we could have saved people from cancer, which means a lot more deaths than Sandy caused directly. Maybe. Or maybe not. It's still relevant.
  
  --
  "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
4. Re:mod me down please by Seeteufel · 2012-11-02 23:33 · Score: 1
  
  Zombie science mouses with genetic defects are going to infect the NY cats and dogs, and then the fun starts.
I know I should've posted this as Any Mouse, but.. by Mister+Liberty · 2012-11-02 10:46 · Score: 1

R A T S !!!
Somebody grab the VR goggles by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:47 · Score: 0

We have some mice to hunt.
DIED not LOST by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 10:48 · Score: 0

Lost suggests that they were swept out somewhere.
1. Re:DIED not LOST by tgeller · 2012-11-02 17:16 · Score: 1
  
  Quite right. "Lost" also treats living creatures like inanimate property. They weren't lost -- they were killed. They're dead. One day they were running about and exercising free will, now they're lifeless.
  
  Thanks to the text for getting it right. Shame on the headline writer.
  
  --
  Tom Geller
Um, mice are pan-dimensional beings... by fahrbot-bot · 2012-11-02 10:52 · Score: 1

Obviously, the mice simply took refuge back in their own dimension for safety - duh.
Frankie and Benjy asked me to tell you, "Thanks for all the cheese."

--
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Thanks by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 11:02 · Score: 0

So long and thanks for all the fish.
Katrina had sharks, Sandy has supermice. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 11:06 · Score: 1

This is freaking scarey - did any escape? Has nobody watched 'Pinky and the Brain' ?
Re:I know I should've posted this as Any Mouse, bu by millisa · 2012-11-02 11:11 · Score: 1

Just for you . . .
USS Lexington AnyMouse Report
Took the pic on 5/7/02 on the USS Lexington (CV-16) in Corpus Christi. I think it was somewhere near the engine room?
Okay... Gotta be said... by bdwoolman · 2012-11-02 11:12 · Score: 1

I for one...
On second thought. No it doesn't.
w00t!

--
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
Thank-You for clarifying that much... apk by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 11:26 · Score: 0

I read some of the conditions involved & am by NO MEANS, a "medical professional"... thus, I just had a spot of worry's all, over something BAD spreading.
* "Onwards, & Upwards..."
APK
P.S.=> The downmod doesn't amaze me - someone always downmods my posts here (almost all, it's hilarious watching them blow their modpoints on "lil' ole' me" that way, wastefully... but, there ya go!).
... apk
In the other news by hackingbear · 2012-11-02 11:31 · Score: 1

Thousands of cats ran away during Hurricane Sandy
Somewhere in NYC.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 11:36 · Score: 0

Pinky, do you know what time it is?
1. Re:Somewhere in NYC.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-03 13:38 · Score: 0
  
  Pinky, do you know what time it is?
  
  I think so, Brain, but *glug glug glug*
Do not build in storm surge zones unless you MUST. by couchslug · 2012-11-02 12:40 · Score: 1

What is hit once will be hit again. Locate accordingly, and have an evac plan if you don't have the option of an intelligently chosen facility location.
Nature doesn't care what you want. It does what it will.

--
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I'm sorry, but the wrong lab animals died here. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 13:05 · Score: 0

The mice should have been the first priority, even before the patients in the other hospital. Those patients took the risk of going to the butchers, meanwhile the lab animals had no choice to be imprisoned and needlessly drowned. There is absolutely no reason to use lab animals in this day and age. Computer simulations have taken their place, and there's still plenty of human subjects around. Give them a few bucks (or better yet, a McDonalds coupon) for their trouble. If you have access to a science department, do nature a favor and release all caged animals (you may keep your humans caged, for our benefit).
Our existence on this planet is a privilege, and it can be revoked. 7 billion humans -- the most destructive animal infestation on the planet. The herd needs some thinning.
1. Re:I'm sorry, but the wrong lab animals died here. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 13:43 · Score: 0
  
  You're the type of people the Rainbow Six novel warned us about. Stay still so I can shoot you and your cured and fried carcass with my toast in the morning.
I don't by n3r0.m4dski11z · 2012-11-02 13:25 · Score: 1

You obviously never had a mouse infestation. Shitting on and in everything, everywhere, on you at night, etc.. Making your family sick. You kill 9 and the 10th gets away and a month later there are 10 again.
fuck mice dude, they either survive or they dont. But its completely irresponsible of scientists to allow genetically modified animals into the wild because "it rained more than we were used to!".

--
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1. Re:I don't by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 14:15 · Score: 0
  
  Sorry for the Anon post, but people do craze thing to animal researchers. These mice will not survive in the wild because most are so inbred that they die from a mild pathogen. The C57/Bl6 mouse is not a resilient strain (http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_mouse_trap/2011/11/black_6_lab_mice_and_the_history_of_biomedical_research.html).
Perhaps merciful by hypnobuddha · 2012-11-02 14:30 · Score: 1

I'm against animal testing of any kind and sometimes they are treated cold heartedly in the name of science. This may have been a more merciful end for them.

--
Eyes Open Self-Hypnosis for Victory: Summon the Warrior
I'm against animal testing by PPH · 2012-11-02 15:18 · Score: 2

They just get nervous and give the wrong answers.

--
Have gnu, will travel.
At Least by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 16:43 · Score: 0

Splinter is on the go!
Just wait for some kid to flush Donatello,Rafael,Michelangelo and Leonardo!
Zombie Apocolypse by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 17:26 · Score: 0

Is this how they started the zombie apocolypse?
So long, mice! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 20:39 · Score: 0

Bet they don't feel smarter than dolphins now...
Blessed Relief by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-02 20:39 · Score: 0

Probably a blessed relief for the poor bastards. Any medical research for the benefit of humans should be performed on humans, not animals.
Use convicted paedophiles, murderers and rapists as laboratory test subjects. Failing that volunteers.
Using animals is totally immoral and inexcusable. So don't be suprised if it turns out the "greys" do exist and that they do use humans as experimental test subjects. That's what we do to "lower" (i.e. different) sentient life forms so why shouldn't they ?
they need to put the suits in the basements by swschrad · 2012-11-03 03:00 · Score: 1

you can always get more empty suits to take bonuses and spiffs. you can't get more (power, boilers, lab rats, document storage, corners full of creepy crap) once the basement floods and is filled with the raw sewage of 20 million people in a flood. so fill the basements with suits, and put the infrastructure on floors 3-6.

--
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
They're Lost? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-03 05:02 · Score: 0

Perhaps we can use that VR Tech to find them!
No Backups? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-03 14:33 · Score: 0

If you have an important, genetically modified line of something as quick and easy to breed as mice (or whatever else you might be studying), why wouldn't you have backups, either in another part of the building (to isolate two populations from each other in case of disease, contamination, or storage failures), or at another site?

As a VERY amateur mycologist interested in developing gourmet mushrooms, I am well aware that disasters can strike at any time. So what do I do? I do my research in a particular lab and store smaller quantities of backup cultures somewhere else. So simple! I don't think there is a common adage about keeping all your master isolates in one fridge, but backing up one's work seems like common sense!
Moment by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-03 15:29 · Score: 0

There are some graduate students crying their eyes out.
I'm so sorry...
-another graduate student
What the news!!!!! by Fariha · 2012-11-04 03:02 · Score: 1

What the news also isn't reporting, is that because of this flooding, there is all sorts of hazardous medical waste floating in the water underneath/in NYU medical center. I would expect this to become a problem; there are millions of gallons of water which likely cannot simply be pumped out into drainage systems, and may have to be treated first, or removed for treatment at a later time. Is it? Or not?