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Food Dye Used in Doritos Offers a 'Jaw-Dropping' Perk
Food Dye Used in Doritos
Offers a 'Jaw-Dropping' Perk
in case you missed it

Food Dye Used in Doritos Offers a 'Jaw-Dropping' Perk

Tartrazine, aka 'Yellow No. 5,' creates see-through skin on mice to help scientists peer inside their bodies

(Newser) - To many consumers, "Yellow No. 5" is best known as the food dye that adds an orange-yellow tinge to snacks and drinks like Doritos, Gatorade, and M&Ms. To a team from Stanford, however, tartrazine, the chemical found in that dye, recently served as a window into living creatures'...

Want to Scare a Male Mouse? Try a Banana


Want to Scare
a Male Mouse?
Try a Banana
new study

Want to Scare a Male Mouse? Try a Banana

Scientists make an odd, and accidental, discovery

(Newser) - It's one of the weirder scientific discoveries in a while: Scientists accidentally found that mice are afraid of bananas—but only male mice, and particularly virgins. It seems that bananas give off the same scent that female mice emit when they're warning males to steer clear of their...

The Mouse Infestation at FDA HQ Is Sort of Normal

It turns out mice, other critters are common around White Oak, but pandemic didn't help

(Newser) - It could happen in any office building from which staff made hasty, "temporary" departures at the start of the pandemic. One week rolled into the next, and the workers did not return, but all those snacks around their offices remained. Local rodents took notice, apparently, at the FDA's...

Calif. OK's Plan to Blanket Islands In Poison

Mice threaten wildlife at Farallon Islands

(Newser) - The California Coastal Commission has approved a plan to poison invasive mice threatening rare seabirds on the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, per the AP . The agency that regulates California's coastline voted 5-3 Thursday night to approve a plan to drop about 3000 pounds of poisoned bait from helicopters...

Mouse Plague Forces Prison Evacuation

Rodents have chewed through wires at rural Australian facility

(Newser) - As a maximum security prison, the Wellington Correctional Center in New South Wales is good at keeping prisoners in—but it has completely failed to keep rodents out during the mouse plague the region is experiencing. The prison says more than 400 inmates and 200 staff members will be relocated...

Australia Tormented by Plague of Ravenous Mice

Numbers are 'absolutely unprecedented'

(Newser) - Vast tracts of land in Australia's New South Wales state are being threatened by a mouse plague that the state government describes as “absolutely unprecedented." Just how many millions of rodents have infested the agricultural plains across the state is guesswork, the AP reports. At night, the...

'Shocking' Find Made at Government Labs

PETA demands an audit at all National Institutes of Health laboratories

(Newser) - Mice cooked to death. Primates holed up in a room with 24-hour-a-day lights. An owl, denied veterinary care, that dies in a cage. These are among the 31 incidents uncovered through a freedom-of-information request about animal-welfare failures in government labs in 2018 and 2019—labs where official inspections are never...

The Plan: Drop 1.5 Tons of Rat Poison Pellets Here

Fish and Wildlife Service thinks it's the only way to rid the Farallon Islands of mice

(Newser) - The only humans who occupy the South Farallon Islands off San Francisco are scientists. But the land is otherwise well-populated: In addition to sea lions, seals, and salamanders, it's home to the biggest seabird breeding colony in the Lower 48. But there's also house mice—up to 60,...

This Could Be a Novel Way to Conquer Cocaine Addiction

Scientists devise a genetically engineered skin graft that works in mice

(Newser) - Could a skin graft help cocaine addicts get clean? Scientists at the University of Chicago say their novel approach has worked in mice, reports New Scientist . And if this translates to humans, it could be a game changer, though the remedy is specific to cocaine addiction. In a new study...

200K Mice Plagued the Islands. Amazingly, There Are Now None

A seeming victory for biodiversity on New Zealand's Antipodes Islands

(Newser) - A subantarctic archipelago is making "huge news": The New Zealand Herald reports there are officially no more mice on the country's Antipodes Islands, which once housed up to 200,000 of the rodents. They caused a big threat to the World Heritage Site by preying on native birds,...

Work Orders Offer 'Rare Glimpse' Into WH Maintenance Issues

Like mice, roaches, ants, and a toilet seat for the Oval Office

(Newser) - Remember when President Trump reportedly called the White House a "real dump" ? The New York Post notes that, at least in terms of maintenance issues, that observation may not be entirely inaccurate. Hundreds of work orders for the White House were submitted in 2017, and News4 got its...

Umbilical Cord Blood May Give Boost to Aging Brain
Blood in Umbilical Cord
May Improve Our Memories
NEW STUDY

Blood in Umbilical Cord May Improve Our Memories

Older mice injected with it performed better on maze tests

(Newser) - Oh, the proverbial fountain of youth. As we age, can we somehow tap into it? Researchers are exploring this in a literal way as they study the effects of blood from human umbilical cords—which is about as young as it gets—on aging mice. Reporting in the journal Nature...

Mice Have Been Living Off Us Even Longer Than Dogs
Mice Have Been Living Off
Us Even Longer Than Dogs
NEW STUDY

Mice Have Been Living Off Us Even Longer Than Dogs

They appeared around 15K years ago in Levant: study

(Newser) - Dogs were the first domesticated animal, but they may not have been the first to mooch off humans. Scientists previously believed mice started congregating around farms to snatch grain about 12,000 years ago. But new research out of Israel's University of Haifa suggests mice were interacting with humans...

Science's Surprising Discovery: Lungs Aren't Just for Breathing
Science's Surprising Discovery:
Lungs Aren't Just for Breathing
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Science's Surprising Discovery: Lungs Aren't Just for Breathing

They're a key part of blood formation, too: study

(Newser) - All this time we thought lungs were just for breathing. It turns out they also play a key role in how blood is formed, suggests a study in Nature out of the University of California-San Francisco. Scientists studying the lungs of mice discovered to their surprise that the lungs produced...

Days After Death, a Body Remains Alive
2 Days After Death,
Some Life
Continues
in Body
NEW STUDY

2 Days After Death, Some Life Continues in Body

Active genes may be attempting to repair damage: study

(Newser) - Death is more like the slow shutdown of a computer than the flipping off of a light switch, says a scientist, explaining a new study that shows genes in the body remain alive for about two days after the heart stops. In the study of mice and zebrafish, University of...

Scared of Spiders? You Will Be After Seeing This One

It's carrying a mouse

(Newser) - An Australian man has caused squeaks of terror around the world with a video of an enormous spider carrying a mouse up the side of a refrigerator. "Oh, hell, no" and "nope, nope, nope" sum up the more than 80,000 responses to the video , which has been...

Why Mice Are Nature's Jet Engines
Why Mice
Are Nature's
Jet Engines

Why Mice Are Nature's Jet Engines

The tiny animals use a very rare method to sing high-pitched songs

(Newser) - Wondering what animal might have the most in common with a jet engine? Prepare to be surprised. Elena Mahrt, author of a study published Monday in Current Biology , says mice sing ultrasonic songs using a method "never found before in any animal," according to a press release . It...

Cinnamon Might Make Us Better Learners
 Cinnamon Might 
 Make Us Better 
 Learners 
NEW STUDY

Cinnamon Might Make Us Better Learners

Mice who ate cinnamon showed improved memory, learning

(Newser) - Scientists say they've discovered "one of the safest and the easiest approaches to convert poor learners to good learners." And all you have to do is eat cinnamon. Researchers at Rush University Medical Center say that feeding cinnamon to mice with a poor learning ability turned them...

Scientists Find a Mouse That Gets Periods

Spiny mouse could help in researching human conditions

(Newser) - Just 1.5% of mammals menstruate and 99.9% of those are primates. That's why scientists are amazed by the spiny mouse—the first rodent shown to menstruate with a cycle remarkably similar to humans, according to a study that still needs to be peer-reviewed. Researchers at Monash University...

Scientists Can Now Control Mouse Minds With Magnets

And that could have huge implications for humans

(Newser) - Scientists at the University of Virginia were able to control the brains of living mice using magnetic fields, essentially harnessing the power of mind control, according to a study published this week in Nature Neuroscience. Researchers created a synthetic gene—dubbed Magneto, obviously—that is sensitive to magnetic fields and...

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