This is a monument to lab rats in Novosibirsk, Russia. I think it’s adorable.
In other news from Russia, our daughter Skatje is deep in Siberia, and has been incommunicado for a while. We got a quick note letting us know that she is approaching Vladivostok, but a more thorough debriefing will have to come after she gets home next week.
That is where the fox domestication experiments were performed!
How thoughtful! I like that, but then I would. :D
The monument has already been induced to the Left-handed DNA Hall of Fame back in 2014.
Ed, that’s a mouse, not rat… Sure, both are rodents, but different models used for different (albeit overlapping) general purposes. Sort of like using zebrafish and sticklebacks as interchangeable terms for ‘lab fish’. At least the text of the linked article is correct, if the title isn’t, and there is a note at that link that others are planned, so maybe a rat is still to come ?
First I was… and then I was.
She’s knitting, isn’t she.
fusilier
James 2:24
She or he is knitting, and a double helix at that.
Figures the fish guy can’t tell rodents apart. That looks more like a mouse to me.
Seriously, though. Adorable may be an understatement.
A better monument would be a diorama of the burial of Trofim Lysenko with a stake through his heart and locked chains wrapped around his coffin.
I wonder if we could use Lysenko to convince the Republicans that politicising science is a Commie Idea?
@OptimalCynic #9:
I can’t help but think that the Republicans already see climate science, evolution and cosmology as a politically-inspired Commie plot to overthrow the Word of God. After all, they are the metaphorical dinosaurs who want to keep the actual dinosaurs in their rightful, Godly place (see Ham et al).
Wrong question. A more appropriate question might be, “would it serve their agenda?”. As long as the answer to that is a “yes”, anything is possible. Anything! Unfortunately that won’t help the rest of us deal with them.
It’s the Giant Mouse of Minsk!
@Blondin #12
Fuck Yes! Does he crush antisemitic cats?
Isn’t DNA a right-handed double-helix?
My first thought was Mrs. Frisby. I suppose that’s close enough.
I concur! All depictions of rodents wearing eyeglasses and practicing fiber arts must be scientifically valid!
Sure, why not? After all, there’s a museum of scientifically-accurate fabric brain art.
#14, 16, 17
Its knitting simultaneously 5′ to 3′ AND 3′ to 5′ too; there’s 13 base pairs per turn, and the wombat’s glasses are clearly fake!!1!1!!!
Why, oh why won’t someone think of the children?
Oh, Novosibirsk, that brings me back… unfortunately I’ve never seen that statue in person, but I haven’t been that often in the city, despite being born there.
There used to be an amusement park in Novosibirsk back in my day, although it’s probably derelict by now, so I’d rather not recommend visiting it. I’m also almost certain there was a nice museum there somewhere, maybe your daugther should go there instead.
The headline for the linked article says “rat” but the article itself says “mouse”.
It looks like Mrs. Frisby from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, the book later made into the (inferior to the book) cartoon The Secret of NIMH.
Carlie @ 21:
That movie was close to a travesty. “Oooh, it’s magic!”, because already very smart rats getting a boost in intelligence, and wanting to found their own self sufficient society in peace, nah, can’t have a movie about that, oh no.