The "Universum 25" Mouse Experiment
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In 1972, John B. Calhoun built a utopia for mice. Every aspect of Universe 25, as this particular model was called, was designed to ensure the rodents' well-being, increase their life expectancy, and give them the opportunity to mate. This wasn't the first time the ethologist had built a world for rodents. Calhoun had created utopian environments for rats and mice since the 1940s, with the same results: overpopulation leads to explosive violence and hypersexual activity, followed by asexuality, self-destruction, and extinction.
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READ THE BOOK
"Escape from the Lab: The Rodent Experiments of John B. Calhoun & Their Cultural Influence," by Edmund Ramsden & Jon Adams: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/22514/ or http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/22514/1/2308...
Read about The Behavioral Sink on Longreads
https://longreads.com/2011/09/07/the-...
Read more about the life and work of John B. Calhoun
https://longreads.com/2011/09/07/the-...
SOURCES
Life of John B. Calhoun - Wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B....
Edmund Ramsden & Jon Adams, "Escape from the Laboratory: The Rodent Experiments of John B. Calhoun & Their Cultural Influence," The Journal of Social History, vol. 42, no. 3 (2009).
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/22514/1/2308...
Wiles, W. (2011). The Behavioral Sink: The mouse universe of John B. Calhoun. Cabinet, (42).
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues...
John B. Calhoun, "Death Squared: The Explosive Growth and Demise of a Mouse Population," in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 66 (January 1973), pp. 80-88.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
John B. Calhoun, "Population Density and Social Pathology," Scientific American, Vol. 206, No. 2 (February 1962), pp. 139-150.
http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1963-...
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
In the following exercise, students will learn about Calhoun's work and Universe 25.
Divide the class into groups of 3 or 4.
Ask students how they think society would develop if everyone had access to food, water, shelter, and ideal living conditions. Ask them to describe what society would be like in 25 years if all of this were readily available.
Show students Sprout's video about Universe 25.
Ask them if they think the mice's demise was caused by overpopulation and its consequences or by a lack of survival instinct due to the abundance of resources.
Ask them if they want to change their answer from the first question.
Ask them if they think there are any fundamental differences between humans and mice that would justify a different answer to the first question.