Rats have always been hated. And why love them? Vile, thieving, arrogant, and even dangerous in their ability to spread deadly diseases around the world.
Only at the end of the 19th century was the rat looked at with respect. And even then only because weirdos appeared - doctors who decided to use the rodent for scientific purposes. As a result, for more than 100 years of its scientific service, the laboratory rat has saved more than one hundred human lives.
Antibiotics appeared exclusively thanks to the rat, with its help it became known how alcohol, drugs and radiation affect a person. The rat was studied up and down, even got to its genome - it turned out that its size is comparable to that of humans.
And now the rat has made a new commitment: to educate researchers about the genetic basis of diabetes. With regret, scientists admit that they do not even half know a person as well as a rat. However, this is a very loud statement, because this animal never ceases to amaze us to this day.
JUNKER AND SMART
Until recently, scientists believed that the main difference between humans and animals is not intelligence, but their ability to laugh. However, American scientists from Ohio University have proved that rats are the exception to this rule. An ultrasound audiogram showed that if a rat is tickled, it laughs uncontrollably.
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And the statement of Dr. Allison Foote from the University of Georgia that rats are capable of introspection looks absolutely incredible. First, Allison taught subjects to distinguish between sounds lasting three and nine seconds and to record the difference by pressing one or the other lever. If the answer was correct, the rat received the treat; if not, it was left with nothing.
In the next experiment, the rat, having listened to the signal, could agree to “pass the exam” and use familiar levers, or refuse by sticking its muzzle out (which meant “I don’t know the correct answer”). In this case, she also received a crumb of food, incommensurable, of course, with reward for a successful reply.
The duration of the signal began to vary. When its duration was closer to three or nine seconds, the rodents were eager to respond. But in the range from four to five seconds, they preferred a modest but reliable reward, admitting their incompetence.
And here is another, no less surprising fact. It seems to the common man that all rats are alike. But scientists who deal with these animals day in and day out claim that they have personality. Can be gloomy and optimistic, cheerful or angry depending on the circumstances. And here's an example.
Rats, accustomed to a well-fed and free life, and those whom scientists constantly subjected to all kinds of unpleasant experiments, were taught to associate one sound with feeding, and the other with a light shock. Then the charges were divided into two groups and turned on … a completely unfamiliar sound. The lucky rats rushed to the feeding trough just in case. Rats-sufferers, on the contrary, crawled into the far corner, knowing in advance that nothing good would happen to them.
SEERS AND TELEPATS
Most of the representatives of the animal world adhere to their usual habitat and are removed from their places only in case of emergency. The only exceptions are rats.
They are driven into unknown distances not only by need, but also by curiosity or the instinct of a pioneer. Of course, not all rats without exception love to swim and travel, but the number of these is much greater than the number of other adventurers of the animal world.
How can this be explained? Scientists farther, the more boldly they determine whether rats have collective intelligence. Here one turned its bow towards the moored ship, seconds - and hundreds of noses were already stared at it, another minute - and the rats were already on the ship.
Here's another example. The experimenters placed two rats in adjacent cages and taught them to run away when a certain sound or light signal arrived (it was accompanied by an electric discharge). Then one of the rats received this signal and ran doom.
But the same was done by her colleague, who received no signal! According to scientists, this is how rats flee from sinking ships, leave cities on the eve of an earthquake, and leave cities before the outbreak of war. Seers - what can I say.
VACUUM CLEANER DO NOT OFFER
How do rats communicate with each other? German scientists in 2009 decided to study the sounds with which ordinary laboratory rats talk. Supersensitive equipment was used, and after two weeks of the experiment it became clear that an adult rat communicates with congeners, making up to 5,000 different sounds.
The feeling of beauty is not alien to rats. This was stated by researchers from the University of Texas. Every day they offered newborn rat pups to listen to music: the first fuppe was Wagner, the second was rap, and the third was the noise of a vacuum cleaner.
After two months, everyone was put in a common cage with keys on the floor. By stepping on a certain key, the rat pups could activate one or another musical program. It turned out that the majority preferred Wagner, few preferred rap. But nobody wanted to listen to the vacuum cleaner …
SMALL YES DELETED
The rats' abilities are truly endless. Judge for yourself. They make excellent laboratory assistants. Tanzanian scientists taught them how to identify tuberculosis bacteria. After all, modern technology allows you to test only 20 samples per day, and rats are able to test 150 saliva samples in just 30 minutes.
… And the military. In Tanzania, for example, rats are trained to search for minefields, dynamite and other explosives. And in Burma, rats help customs officers - not a single drug courier or drug luggage will pass by them. In the United States, this practice is also adopted. Bloodhound rats have great advantages over dogs: they instinctively sniff the space around them and can penetrate into places inaccessible to large animals.
Of course, the development of such technologies gives rise to new, almost fantastic projects. In the United States, they have long been thinking about the problem of connecting the rat brain to the microcircuits implanted in it. A microchip in the brain - and the operator controls the rats. The rat army.
They can not only search, but also carry out reconnaissance behind enemy lines, organize sabotage at chemical, weapons, fuel depots and missile bases. They can install eavesdropping devices or poison capsules in headquarters.
What can you say about such an experiment? Scientists have built two labyrinths. They put cheese inside the first one and let a rat run. In the center of the second was a hundred-dollar bill - a man followed. The man found the bait before the rat, but the experiment did not end there.
Time after time, access to the expected prize was opened - a man and a rat ran after him. But for the second, and even more so for the third time, there was no cheese or money on the final line. After the second unsuccessful attempt, the rats did not enter the maze. And people walked and walked until the experiment was stopped by a forceful decision.
The conclusion suggests itself disappointing for us, people. Having acquired experience, rats act on the basis of it, but we prefer to step on our favorite rake. Having learned what is important, the rats share with their fellow tribesmen, a person mostly lives by his own interest. Rats stick to each other, prone to self-sacrifice in the name of the clan. We, alas, cannot boast of this.
Natalia BYKOVA