Checkup: Keeping Lab Mice Warm If you were to visit a scientific
lab, say one devoted to developing new drugs, it would look
something like this: "Basically youíd walk into a room that has
no windows, that was light controlled, that was temperature
controlled, that was humidity controlled, and there would be
racks, shelves and shelves of shelves, with hundreds, thousands
of mice in the room in little plastic cages." Thatís Joe Garner,
a professor of comparative medicine at Stanford. The biggest
problem for lab mice, he says, is not that theyíre in cages in
windowless rooms. Itís that theyíre cold. "The typical
temperature in a mouse room is whatís comfortable for a human
being in scrubs in a lab coat -- thatís about 22 degrees
centigrade." Or, for us Americans, roughly 71 degrees
Fahrenheit. Which might sound warm enough, except that for the
mice, which are typically not supplied with nesting material,
itís a little on the cool side. And when mice are cold, they
have to burn more energy and give up some biolo