Children’s movies often imagine futures that feel far‑off, but sometimes they’re closer than we think!
For @sciam.bsky.social, @jackiefmogensen.bsky.social unpacks the real science of animal communication & consciousness behind Pixar's new film Hoppers:
www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
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The Fall 2025 edition of SAO Quarterly is landing in inboxes this week!
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✅ Just 4 content-packed emails per year.
"This is an amazing newsletter!!!" – A happy subscriber
Sign up at the bottom of our homepage: scienceadvancement.org
🧪 #scipol #bioethics #medsky
On July 7, during a joint webinar with the FDA, the NIH announced it will no longer no longer seek proposals exclusively for animal models. Going forward, all new funding opportunities will include language encouraging the use of non-animal methods.
BREAKING 🚨 NIH will no longer issue new funding opportunities for animal-only projects. Each funding call will include consideration of non-animal methods.
#NAMs 🧪
A graphic titled “Keeping Up Momentum: What NIH Should Do Next.” There is a list of three steps accompanied by icons: “End animal use in research areas where they are poor models of humans” (mouse icon), “Conduct or commission systematic reviews on the use of animals for human biomedical research” (paper with magnifying glass icon), and “Require harm-benefit analyses of proposed experiments on animals” (balanced scales icon). ScienceAdvancement.org
Research Modernization NOW offers a clear path forward. To make its new initiative meaningful, NIH must:
🐁 Stop funding failed animal models
🔍 Conduct systematic reviews
⚖️ Weigh harms during grant review
Sign the open letter to support this plan: www.scienceadvancement.org/open-letter-...
Graphic featuring an image of a lung-on-a-chip device from the Wyss Institute at Harvard ("Combining microfabrication techniques with modern tissue engineering, the lung-on-a-chip, designed by the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, offers a new in vitro approach to drug screening by mimicking the complicated mechanical and biochemical behaviors of a human lung. The lung-on-a-chip work was supported by NIH Common Fund and FDA. Wyss Institute, Harvard University.") The text over the graphic reads: "NIH to prioritize non-animal science. Following decades of advocacy, the agency is finally shaking off its animal experimenting habits and moving into the 21st century. It's the paradigm shift we've been calling for." ScienceAdvancement.org. Breaking News.
🚨 BREAKING 🚨: After decades of relying heavily on animal models, NIH is launching a landmark initiative to prioritize human-based research technologies and reduce animal use in agency-funded projects.
A long-overdue paradigm shift in biomedical research is here. 👏 🧵 🧪
Mice, Empathy, and the Ethics We Ignore - a new SAO blog by @katibertrand.bsky.social
For centuries, experimenters have justified using mice by denying their emotional complexity. Three recent studies challenge that view.
www.scienceadvancement.org/reflections/... 🧵
Check out this review on complex in vitro models for #RareDisease therapeutics! 🦓 🧪
Authors from @humaneworldorg.bsky.social & academic colleagues include actionable recommendations for using policy & regulations to boost these methods.
www.frontiersin.org/journals/cel...
Monkeys by the Numbers 🙈🙉🙊
Anthony Effinger at @wweek.com dives into the mounting pressure to close down the Oregon National Primate Research Center. Let's break down some key developments & figures:
www.wweek.com/news/2025/04...
An important piece by @celiaford.bsky.social on the hidden cost of animal experimentation paid by animals—but also the scientists, vets, & caretakers tasked with harming them. Academia & industry rarely talk about it, but this silence is hurting science itself. 🧵 🧪
www.vox.com/future-perfe...
Young female rats were strangled with a silicon band for 90s, applying force 3x their body weight. Other rats were given traumatic brain injuries by a weight propelled with pneumatic force onto the rats’ heads. Some rats received both injuries.
Horrific, @monashuniversity.bsky.social
"A call to U.S. scientists, medical professionals, academics, ethicists, philosophers, public health specialists, and other experts. Sign our open letter! Put Research Modernization Now into action."
We need your help to put Research Modernization NOW into action. 🧪 U.S. scientists, medical professionals, academics, ethicists, philosophers, public health specialists, etc. 🖊️ Please sign our open letter supporting the Research Modernization NOW strategy: www.scienceadvancement.org/open-letter-...
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Orange and tan graphic showing the cover of the report “Research Modernization NOW.” Text on the graphic reads: “Research Modernization NOW. A roadmap for optimizing our nations’ investment in research to cure disease. ScienceAdvancement.org/RMN.”
📢 Big News! 🧪 Today, we released "Research Modernization NOW," our 2025 strategy to shift the research paradigm toward human-relevant science and away from outdated, misleading animal models of human disease.
www.scienceadvancement.org/research-mod...
#scipol
Side by side photographs of a human staring at a computer with their hand on their chin like they're thinking and a chimpanzee outside in the same posture.
Humans are similar to other primates in ways that affect how we treat & interact with them. But when it comes to genetic details critical for biomedical research, key differences make non-human primates poor stand-ins for humans. Two new findings show us why... 🧵
Screenshot from the linked PDF, which shows the Science Advancement & Outreach letterhead and the following title: "Request for Information (RFI): Soliciting Input on Priorities and Progress in Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias Research (NOT-NS-24-132). Submitted by email to ADRDSummit2025@ninds.nih.gov on December 6, 2024"
This month, SAO sent comments to #NINDS on research recommendations for the AD/ADRD Summit 2025. While it previously included important goals for increased training & career development, its approach was over-reliant on animal models. Read more here: www.scienceadvancement.org/wp-content/u...
🚨 A must-watch doc by Bloomberg Investigates: The Dirty Business of Monkey Laundering
How a US gov agency set out to prove suppliers to research labs were importing wild monkeys from Cambodia with false paperwork.
It includes the great work of Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=En7B...
"Birch’s ultimate message in The Edge of Sentience is that a massive shift in how we view beings with a questionable sentience status should be made. And we should ideally make this change now..."
Lindsey Laughlin reviews @birchlse.bsky.social's The Edge of Sentience for @arstechnica.com:
A cartoon hand holds a red ribbon. Text reads: "World AIDS Day. Human-specific diseases require human-specific research." The Science Advancement & Outreach logo is at the top of the page.
Here's what SAO is thinking about on this #WorldAIDSDay. 100% of HIV vaccine candidates developed using animals have failed in human trials. Since only humans contract #HIV and develop #AIDS, this research must be based in human biology.
#WorldAIDSDay2024
The #NIH is accepting #grant applications for projects to generate "large scale transcriptomic and epigenomic data at the single cell/nucleus level from human brain tissue." Note the deadlines below!
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
#transcriptomics #epigenomics #omics
Charles River Laboratories is running a “monkey laundering scheme” by importing thousands of live long-tailed macaques from Cambodia to Canada, transforming them into “specimens” at the company’s Quebec facilities, and then re-exporting them to the U.S.
montrealgazette.com/news/local-n...
The #3Rs just aren't cutting it. We need an ethical framework that is enforceable, takes into account what we now know about animal sentience, the booming world of #NAMs, & perhaps offers a fourth "R" - Rejection.
New blog by @katibertrand.bsky.social:
www.scienceadvancement.org/reflections/...
