mice

A lack of funding to labs is likely to mean an early death for thousands of mice used in scientific and medical research. The loss of specialty mice, many of which have genes that can cause them to develop versions of human diseases, is especially troubling to scientists — and expensive.

For more than a century, neurons have been the superstars of the brain. Now researchers say that when they placed human versions of another type of brain cell into mice brains, the mice grew up to be faster learners. This supports the hypothesis that these glial cells — and not just better-known neurons — play an important role in learning.