NIH Suspends Funding for Testing on Chimps and Other News of the Week
Image by Dhammika Heenpella / Images of Sri Lanka via Flickr
NIH suspends funding for testing on chimps
We start this week with a follow-up to a previous Caterpickle which mentioned that the NIH was preparing a report on the usefulness of chimps in biomedical and behavioral research. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the National Institute of Health has suspended all new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimps. The move comes in response to recommendations from an expert committee of the Institute of Medicine. Although the NIH’s decision will not halt all testing on chimps (chimps can still be used in research if investigators prove that the research is necessary for human health and that testing on chimps is the only way to do it), it is being hailed as a victory by animal rights groups.
And in the category of things I didn’t want to know:
- Scientists have discovered a roach that can jump as far as a grasshopper
- The rumor that shoveling snow raises your risk of heart attacks may actually be true
- Once upon a time, there was a squid-like predator with grasping claws and 16,000 hexagonal lenses in its eyes.
I may never read the New York Times Science section again. OK, OK, at least not until next week.
So, what about you? What caught your eye this week?
CATERPICKLES 
What are you thinking?