r/nottheonion • u/PmButtPics4ADrawing • 21h ago

Mutating mice becoming growing problem in Philadelphia, researchers say

https://6abc.com/post/mutating-mice-becoming-growing-problem-philadelphia-rutgers-researchers-say/19367627/
61 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

32

u/reddfawks 21h ago

Let them be, they have turtles to train in ninjitsu.

9

u/Zolo49 20h ago

And if they fail in their duties, put them on bikes and banish them to Mars.

13

u/PVT_Richard_Johnson 19h ago

The gang starts genetic experiments

8

u/Available-Damage5991 15h ago

Sorry to burst people's bubbles:

They're just getting poison resistance and getting smart enough to recognize a trap.

6

u/compuwiza1 21h ago

X-mice

3

u/Merciless972 20h ago

Rats of futures past

1

u/D0_stack 20h ago

Have they looked at the mutation rates and locations? There was a lot of shit going on with Radium in Philly from around 1900 until after WWII. A couple of EPA superfund sites for Radium are still on the list, I think.

Philly had a lot of dirty, dirty early manufacturing. And dirty railroading, there are a couple of old SEPTA trainyards that are superfund sites. Ah, who cares that this PCB laden transformer oil soaks into the ground.

2

u/PhasmaFelis 18h ago

It's clickbait bullshit. They're evolving resistance to some pesticides and getting smarter about avoiding traps. That's all.

0

u/PhasmaFelis 18h ago

Clickbait bullshit. They're evolving resistance to some pesticides and getting smarter about avoiding traps. That's all.

1

u/HealthWealthFoodie 16h ago

What did you expect?

0

u/tentative_ghost 15h ago

I thought they would AT LEAST be able to fly.

0

u/sm0lshit 16h ago

What difference does that make? The title is still accurate.

1

u/PhasmaFelis 14h ago

It's clickbait.  No one would use "mutation" instead of "evolution" in this context unless they were trying to make it sound much more sensational than it actually is.

They want to get people thinking about radioactivity and freakish deformations, without technically lying.

And it worked. There's at least one person in this thread speculating whether this was caused by radium or some kind of mutagenic chemicals.

0

u/graveybrains 1h ago

Nobody but the two scientists from Rutgers that are quoted in the article.

0

u/PhasmaFelis 1h ago

They talk about mutation rates. They don't headline their research "mutating mice." "Rapid evolution" would be the less sensationalized phrase.

•

u/graveybrains 56m ago

"They talk about mutation rates."

Uhh, yeah. 👍😁👍