They zeroed in on the fact that soiled bedding from a pregnant female was enough to give males the superhuman (supermouse?) pain tolerance. The researchers decided to start a new experiment to investigate further. So, not only is this a weird quirk that begs explanation, but it was also potentially messing up the study’s results-and maybe even the results of other, previously published studies where scientists had inadvertently skewed data by keeping pregnant mice around. A grad student picked up on the fact that they were “aggressive” and had “super-high pain thresholds” when the pregnant females were in the area. FACT: Male mice are terrified of bananasĪ while back, researchers at McGill University were studying pain sensitivity in mice and noticed something weird: When pregnant female mice-which were being used for another experiment-were kept close by, the male subjects started acting strangely. If you like the stories in this post, we guarantee you’ll love the show. It’s your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you’ll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci’s hit podcast.
