The LRB Podcast Rat Universes
Jul 23, 2025
Join Jon Day, a King's College London educator and author of "Homing," as he explores the intriguing world of lab and wild rats. Discover the compelling experiments of John B. Calhoun, revealing unsettling parallels between rat behavior and human societal issues like urban overcrowding. Day discusses the ethics of using rats in research and how misconceptions shape our views of these creatures. He challenges the myths surrounding rat populations and highlights the complex, often misunderstood relationship between humans and rats in our shared environments.
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Wistar Rats: Lab-Bred and Docile
- Wistar rats are a highly inbred strain specifically bred for experimentation.
- They are docile and less intelligent than wild rats, used to standardize research outcomes.
Calhoun's Behavioral Sink Discovery
- Calhoun’s rat experiments showed population growth leads to pathological behaviors causing societal collapse.
- He identified distinct rat personality types emerging in overcrowded conditions, signaling behavioral sink.
Disease Overlooked in Rat Crashes
- Calhoun ignored disease as a factor in rat population crashes, dismissing potential health impacts.
- His experiments lacked controls for disease, undermining conclusions about behavioral causes.
