Universe 25 is John Calhoun’s experiment
Posted Date – 11:59 PM, Wednesday – 1/11/23
Hyderabad: For centuries, laboratory experiments with mice have been the basis for scientists and researchers around the world to make major medical breakthroughs and develop their research hypotheses. Even today, animal model experiments play a vital role in the advancement of medical technology.
In the past few weeks, however, a medical experiment on mice conducted between 1968 and 1973 by American researcher John B. Calhoun has suddenly started gaining traction on multiple social media platforms. The reason for the sudden interest in Calhoun’s work, which he christened “Universe 25,” was the uncanny resemblance the experiment had to today’s society.
mouse utopia or hell
Calhoun’s mouse experiment, a researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), is essentially to create a perfect paradise for mice. Researchers have created a utopia for mice, where they have unlimited access to food, water, nesting supplies and the absence of predators. They are housed in a huge enclosure which is divided into rooms or small apartments.
The experiment is to observe the behavior of the rats in the park, and maybe even understand the behavior of humans. Today, researchers around the world believe that the final results of the 25th Universe experiment provide a model of how future societies might collapse.
Mouse Paradise
In his 25th iteration of mouse breeding (known as Universe 25), Calhoun placed four pairs of mice, which began breeding in short order. Since it is a paradise, mice do not need to look for food, resulting in excessive sexual intercourse. As a result, the population doubles approximately every 55 days. However, this is where things start to change.
When the number of rats reached 620, the rate doubled every 145 days as the rat society started to have problems. The rats were divided into groups, and those that couldn’t find a role in those groups found themselves with nowhere to go. With little space available, the extra rats have nowhere to move and no social roles to fill, leaving them alone.
Defeated males withdraw physically and psychologically, become inactive, gather in large pools near the center of the floor, and do not interact with other mice. Later, a new species of mouse called the “beautiful mouse” was developed, and they were isolated from other mice.
Separated from the other 25 mice in the universe, the beautiful mouse does not contribute to society, does not help with mating, parenting, marking territory, etc. Instead, they spend all their time feeding, drinking, grooming and sleeping.
Eventually, the pretty mice outnumbered the more aggressive ones. Soon, the rat population began to die out due to no interest in mating or establishing a sustainable society. The Universe 25 experiment began in 1968, and by 1973, less than five years after the experiment began, the population had plummeted from a high of 2,200 to zero.
In recent weeks, researchers, geneticists, scientists and sociologists have pointed out that the Cosmos 25 experiment could provide a window into understanding the end of humanity, while others have questioned the experiment itself because it was conducted in a man-made environment .
