# Sexy wee beasties! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 14, 2007, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629 "2007-08-14T22:47:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mouse\_Maven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mouse\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mouse_Maven)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/1 "2007-08-14T22:47:38Z")
Some mice have all the fun for science’s sake. [Horny female mutants from Harvard!](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/06/scigend106.xml) Why am I suspecting that this research is funded by AXE body spray? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/2 "2007-08-14T22:58:47Z")
Take _that_, animal-testing opponents! If you had your way, think of all the fun these mice would be missing out on! Wish I were a lab mouse … ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/3 "2007-08-14T23:08:58Z")
Mouse pegging? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/4 "2007-08-14T23:11:04Z")
Wouldn’t it make more sense if these female mice were mounting/thrusting with other females? Or were they only put into cages with male mice? ---
**Author:** ![Pithy\_Moniker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8dc957/32.png) [@Pithy\_Moniker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pithy_Moniker)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/5 "2007-08-14T23:49:01Z")
[QUOTE=Zoggie] Wouldn’t it make more sense if these female mice were mounting/thrusting with other females? [/QUOTE] Sounds like the makings of mouse porn. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/6 "2007-08-14T23:54:08Z")
[QUOTE=Pithy Moniker] Sounds like the makings of mouse porn. [/QUOTE] _Bow chicka squeak squeak_ ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/7 "2007-08-15T00:00:11Z")
Man, what is it with the disclaimers? > [@](#): > > The focus of sex specific behaviour in many species - though not humans > [@](#): > > a small sensory organ found in the noses of of most backboned creatures, except higher primates > [@](#): > > though the results do not apply directly to humans, which lack a vomeronasal organ. > [@](#): > > “My work has nothing to do with humans,” she told The Daily Telegraph. > [@](#): > > What occurs in humans and other animals may be quite different, Prof Dulac noted Are they worried someone might extrapolate their findings to humans and start making a porn movie called _Horny Female Mutants from Harvard_? I suspect they’re too late… ---
**Author:** ![Superfreaknduper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Superfreaknduper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfreaknduper)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/8 "2007-08-15T00:12:24Z")
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose] Man, what is it with the disclaimers? Are they worried someone might extrapolate their findings to humans and start making a porn movie called _Horny Female Mutants from Harvard_? I suspect they’re too late… [/QUOTE] Can I be the male the is hopelessly attacked?..Please? ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/9 "2007-08-15T01:22:20Z")
I wonder what strain of mouse they were using. I’ve seen female behavior that they characterize as “male-specific”-- chasing, mounting, etc.-- in several mouse colonies, and I’d always regarded it as a more or less normal aspect of female group dominance, although more prominent in some strains than others. So I wouldn’t have interpreted the described aberrant mouse behavior as “females suddenly acting like males” so much as “females treating males like other females.” Mice recognize gender by scent; so if they can’t detect those cues for whatever reason, they don’t respond with gender-specific behavior. These female mice aren’t detecting any male scent, so they don’t respond to the males as such; they can’t detect the scent of their own pups, so they fail to nurse them properly. I don’t quite see what the mystery is. I’m unconvinced that this is the dramatic breakthrough that the _Telegraph_ article makes it out to be. It seems more like the mouse equivalent of Julia Sweeney’s androgynous “Pat” character from Saturday Night Live. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/10 "2007-08-15T02:30:23Z")
We lack a vomeronasal organ?..now I want one! (or do I? It sounds a bit like a description of Paris Hilton’s nose). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/11 "2007-08-15T06:52:34Z")
This may be news in the academic world, but it’s an open secret in Hollywood circles that Minnie’s been topping Mickey for years. ---
**Author:** ![Mouse\_Maven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mouse\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mouse_Maven)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/12 "2007-08-15T14:48:47Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] I wonder what strain of mouse they were using. I’ve seen female behavior that they characterize as “male-specific”-- chasing, mounting, etc.-- in several mouse colonies, and I’d always regarded it as a more or less normal aspect of female group dominance, although more prominent in some strains than others. [/QUOTE] I’ve been wondering the same thing. Strain selection effects many aspects of a project, and some investigators don’t research the background they chose very well. (We’ll use Balbs! They’re cheap.) For those not in the mouse-know: Strains of mice are similar to breeds of dog. Beagles and Dobermans have different behaviors because they were selectively bred for different purposes. Seletive breeding has been used on research animals as well, especially mice and rats. While this little “discovery” has very little to do with humans, there may be an application for colony maintance. There have been times I would give a limb to get a strain breeding. ([GFPs.](http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/shine.jpg) Good gods! How could such an expensive strain reproduce so poorly? Its like buying a million dollar stud stallion and discovering he’s impotent.) If aggressive, horny females would help, so be it. 😉 In all reality, I just wantd to post “Horny female mutants from Harvard.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/13 "2007-08-15T14:52:01Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] We lack a vomeronasal organ?..now I want one! (or do I? [/QUOTE] It would allow you to sniff a vagina, or urine, to determine if the vagina’s (or urine’s) owner was worth having sex with. Sound like a fun Saturday night? “Hey, baby–pee, and then lemme smell it…” “Okay, but it’ll be an extra twenty bucks…” ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/14 "2007-08-16T01:09:03Z")
Oh, well I’m not interested in how anyone’s (except my own) vagina smells, so that ends that. I am strangely let down by this. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexy-wee-beasties/415629/15 "2007-08-16T01:09:29Z")
[QUOTE=Mouse\_Maven] In all reality, I just wantd to post “Horny female mutants from Harvard.” 😃 [/QUOTE] I can certainly understand that. In fact I suspect the same impulse was responsible for the _Telegraph_ article. How many times does a science writer get the opportunity to employ the phrase “aggressive pelvic-thrusting masculine lotharios?” Too damn seldom, in my book. Add an actual photo of murine dominatrix foreplay and it’s as close to perfection as journalism can hope to achieve. The only thing lacking is the scandalous inclusion of a prominent British politician.