Genetically modified prairie voles may illuminate the human
condition LOVE, of course, is what makes the world go round, but
what makes love go round? To aesthetes, such a question is
imponderable. To scientists, it is not only ponderable but
increasingly open to scrutiny—the more so now that Zoe Donaldson
and her colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, have
succeeded in creating a new kind of transgenic prairie vole.
For, unlikely as it might seem, these tiny rodents could be the
key to understanding bonding, trust and even decision-making in
humans. For those unfamiliar with the delightful prairie vole,
it is a small rodent found in the grasslands of central North
America. What makes it unusual among mammals is that it is both
sociable and monogamous. Prairie voles groom each other, nest
with one another, collaborate to guard their territory and are
affectionate and attentive parents who form, for the most part,
devoted couples. Their close relatives the meadow voles, by
contrast, prefer a solit