Wonderful bronze statue
A charming memorial honours the animals who perish each year while advancing science in a remote part of central Russia. The artwork, which is in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, depicts a mouse crocheting while wearing a serious expression. And it becomes clear upon closer inspection that this mouse is not crocheting a typical scarf or hat. Essentially, a dual strand of DNA is being woven.
The artwork, which was finished in 2013, is in front of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Department of Cytology and Genetics. It was created to celebrate the institute’s 55th anniversary of foundation and is known as the Memorial to the Laboratory Mouse. It took a year to forge this metal piece. The mouse is focused on its task at hand and has eyeglasses on the bridge of its nose.
The artist Andrei Kharkevich described the design as combining the images of a laboratory mouse and a researcher since they are interconnected and work toward the same goal. “At the moment of scientific advancement, the mouse is branded.”
Mice have long been utilised by scientists to produce ground-breaking discoveries. In addition to being appealing due to their small size and low cost, they also allow researchers to witness numerous generations in a short period of time due to their short lifespan and rapid reproduction cycle. Additionally, they are generally well-behaved, and because of their shared genetics with humans, scientists can see many of the same human signs in their research subjects.
Of course, using animals for study is also problematic. Despite the fact that studies using mice have produced significant findings, groups like PETA are opposed to using lab animals. Mice have a poor quality of life and can be subjected to distressing and unpleasant conditions for the purposes of scientific testing.
Therefore, as we celebrate our amazing accomplishments with the Memorial to the Lab Mouse, let’s also take a moment to express our gratitude to the thousands of animals whose lives have been lost for the advancement of science.
A bronze sculpture called the Memorial to the Lab Mouse is located in Russia.
The monument honours lab mice’s scientific achievements.
