Nautilus Rising

Nautilus Rising I am Shipwash.

I enjoy gallows humor, tea, and science.

Be warned: Medical imagery, forensics, and otherwise disturbing content regularly graces my blog. Keep in mind that I do not do trigger warnings. On the other hand, I also do not post or reblog 'gore' without informational merit or scientific context.

Atheist, genderqueer, asexual. I talk about myself far, far too much.

katreus: In a simple experiment, researchers at the University of Chicago sought to find out whether a rat would release a fellow rat from an unpleasantly restrictive cage if it could. The answer was yes. The free rat, occasionally hearing distress calls from its compatriot, learned to open the cage and did so with greater efficiency over time. It would release the other animal even if there wasn’t the payoff of a reunion with it. Astonishingly, if given access to a small hoard of chocolate chips, the free rat would usually save at least one treat for the captive — which is a lot to expect of a rat. The researchers came to the unavoidable conclusion that what they were seeing was empathy — and apparently selfless behavior driven by that mental state. “A New Model of Empathy: The Rat” by David Brown, Washington Post Rats are far more intelligent creatures than people give them credit for.

Reblogged from katreus

katreus:

In a simple experiment, researchers at the University of Chicago sought to find out whether a rat would release a fellow rat from an unpleasantly restrictive cage if it could. The answer was yes.

The free rat, occasionally hearing distress calls from its compatriot, learned to open the cage and did so with greater efficiency over time. It would release the other animal even if there wasn’t the payoff of a reunion with it. Astonishingly, if given access to a small hoard of chocolate chips, the free rat would usually save at least one treat for the captive — which is a lot to expect of a rat.

The researchers came to the unavoidable conclusion that what they were seeing was empathy — and apparently selfless behavior driven by that mental state.

“A New Model of Empathy: The Rat” by David Brown, Washington Post

Rats are far more intelligent creatures than people give them credit for.

Posted December 9, 2011 at 6:12 am 27497 notes

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    And just imagination - there are still many, many people out there who completely believe without a doubt that animals...
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    chocolate kills rats! It was saving the chocolate chip for its friend so that they BOTH COULD DIE FREE.
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