re: Why are mice always the subject to experiments?

As other have stated mice are relatively cheap to house, keep, and feed. They are mammalian so a lot of the way their body and systems functions still apply to us so their use in comparative medicine research is high. That isnt to say that non-mammalian species cant serve as excellent research models but are often more limited to specific scopes.

Mice have a vast history behind them in regards to research to dig back on and have as background data to build on. Large companies exist with hundreds of specific strains of mice like Jackson laboratories and Charles River.

Animal research must follow the 3R mantra (reduce, refine, replace). Part of that is using the lowest phylogenic species suitable for the research which often falls in the mouse's lap.

If you really are interested in this you can read "The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals in Research" online for free and goes into a lot of detail.

Isn’t there some controversy in the scientific community amongst researchers about the mice that have been used in most studies? Like a good chunk of research is practically null and void because the mice used are all so closely related and have similar genetic defects and such, but since so much of science is already based upon those findings it can’t exactly be redone at this point.

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Isn’t there some controversy in the scientific community amongst researchers about the mice that have been used in most studies? Like a good chunk of research is practically null and void because the mice used are all so closely related and have similar genetic defects and such, but since so much of science is already based upon those findings it can’t exactly be redone at this point.

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yes and no.

the big part of the debate is partly what you described. boiling it to basics, the population of mice used in research might be too specific. IE it doesnt represent a true biodiversity you would see naturally. I agree with that in a way. On the other hand when you are using mice you are usually at the early stages of development in whatever you are looking into. The core aspects of biology are still valid.

I do think diversity should be higher in most rodent research populations and the NIH is starting to put that into requirements for grant funding. To say all previous research is null and void is very much an overreach and when someone says that its a "ding ding" lights on to me they probably are anti-animal research in general.

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I discovered the murine flux capacitor

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That's cool. Without that, the floople ones would be unavailable, leading to cold toes, and red-eyed sojourns. TYVM

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all of the above and also there are special breeds of them where they are basically all clones and you can get much better baselines in studies and not have to account for genetic diversity and whatnot.

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But hasn't Brett Weinstein argued that much of our supposed understanding of medical science due to these mice experiments might be highly tainted by this homogeneity you refer to? (i.e. they all came from the exact same breeder in Maine or something like that)

rebuttal of his argument

Rats are actually amazing pets.

because , frick mice

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But hasn't Brett Weinstein argued that much of our supposed understanding of medical science due to these mice experiments might be highly tainted by this homogeneity you refer to? (i.e. they all came from the exact same breeder in Maine or something like that

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That's why you don't just jump from mice to human trials. You move up to beagles, pigs, and then chimps before people.