2021
Volume 21, Number 1, pp. 23-26
The reproducibility crisis and the misconception of the laboratory mouse as a measuring instrument
H. Würbel
Vetsuisse, University of Berne, Switzerland
Scientific orthodoxy, a strange kind of consensus beyond the reach of doubt among scientists, can conceal the risks and side effects of unsuitable research practices. The way in which scientists deal with the housing conditions of laboratory animals is a particularly illuminating example. Misguided attempts to control biological variation through rigorous standardization of study conditions have been promoted at the expense of animal welfare and have turned animal experiments into single case studies with devastating consequences for reproducibility.