In Novosibirsk, at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, “civilizations” of good and bad mice were bred to understand the genetic nature of aggression. This is stated in a published article. mk.ru.
As stated in the article, this experiment conducted at the institute for 50 years is unique in the world. It includes descendants of gray stray mice. Evil individuals were placed in one cage – another, sympathetic to people. And so they did with several generations of their offspring over several decades. The tendency of a mouse to a certain type of character is determined by the reaction of the employee to his hand stuck in the cage, if the animal approaches him, is interested, sniffs, is determined in one direction, immediately jumps and bites, in the opposite direction.
In February, the institute’s vivarium reported the arrival of the 100th generation of benevolent mice. All 200 mice were “diagnosed” with maximum goodwill between +3.5 and +4 points, while in their ancestors this average was between -2.5 and -1.5 points. The average scores of the attacking mice dropped to -4 points.
The scientists also tried to test whether a benevolent environment would affect the offspring of aggressive parents, planting rat pups from aggressive parents to benevolent mothers and domesticated rat pups for aggressive ones. But biologists have concluded that sympathy and aggression are fixed at the genetic level. Only a few cases have been recorded where an aggressive couple gave birth to a slightly less aggressive offspring (in such cases the aggression score was reduced by one point compared to relatives).
Biologists before discoveredThe coronavirus can spread in gray mice.