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.
The three-toed skink can give birth to live young and lay eggs in the same pregnancy. What can this little critter teach us about the evolution of live birth?
More women are becoming biologists, and this inclusion means that we are learning more about female species and reproduction.
(Shutterstock)
Since 2012, more than 120 of Britain’s universities, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies have signed a public pledge committing them to greater openness in their animal research programs.
You would need to drink over a thousand bottles of red wine per day to get the amount of resveratrol - the compound said to have many health benefits - needed to even have an effect.
One of Newcastle’s macaque monkeys.
Newcastle University
Slow, lazy, stupid? It’s time to update your impression of the crocodilians. These animals are up to amazing things that we’re only beginning to observe and recognize.
The number of animals used in scientific research in the UK fell by 0.4% in 2013, according to figures released by the Home Office. Scientists continue to work hard to reduce the numbers of animals used…
Brazil’s cattle herd is the world’s second-biggest - and welfare standards are on the up.
Zeloneto/Wikimedia Commons
Monika Merkes, La Trobe University and Rob Buttrose, The University of Melbourne
While Brazil’s footballers have failed spectacularly to live up to expectations, there are other areas where the country is quietly exceeding them. Perhaps surprisingly, Brazil’s rapidly improving animal…
Australia uses over seven million of the around 115 million animals used for scientific research each year worldwide.
Ikayama/Flickr
The UK government recently concluded a six-week consultation on discarding a section of its law on animal experimentation in the interest of openness. Australia doesn’t have such restrictive laws but we’re…
Octopuses are the only non-vertebrates granted ‘animal’ status in the area of animal research ethics. Is this an arbitrary distinction?
Saspotato
Many people are surprised to find that insects, jellyfish and sea urchins are animals. Animals are generally thought of as medium-sized four-legged creatures with two sets of eyes and ears — those with…
Better than the garden pond?
www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk
In his recent article on The Conversation, Andrew Knight argues that “the overwhelming majority of invasive animal experiments do not pass the cost-benefit test required by regulations and expected by…
Measuring animal intelligence is extremely complex, yet some animals may be smarter than we think.
Rader of Gin
Does my dog only think of eating, sleeping and chasing squirrels? Does my girlfriend’s cat really have the capacity to plot my accidental death? Are cows just walking hamburgers and pigeons intent on world…