Why Is It Important To Study Life Cycle Of Animals?

While this tabular array is incomplete, it gives a cursory case of some of the reasons for why scientists and the public concur and disagree with using animals for research purposes. Below nosotros provide a bit more detail on these positions.

Advantages to Using Animals for Inquiry

The human body is very complicated, and many scientists believe that a living system is the best way to written report it. Epitome from PLoS Biology Vol. 4, No. ii, e29.

The cells, tissues, and organs of the human body work together in very complex ways. When scientists test a research question they desire to exam their ideas on a system that is every bit much similar that of human bodies every bit possible. So far, a living creature has been a better model of the human body than what other laboratory technique can provide.

Chimpanzees and mice (and other animals, besides) do not look very much like humans, just it turns out that their DNA is very similar to that of humans. This makes humans and animals biologically similar, and they tin can sometimes be affected by the aforementioned wellness problems. Scientists take advantage of this similarity and use creature models to exam their enquiry ideas.

Scientists also tend to work with animals that accept shorter life spans than humans. For case, laboratory mice may only live for 2 to iii years. In contrast, humans tin can alive upward of fourscore to 100 years. The shorter lifespan of animals gives researchers an opportunity to report different questions over an entire lifetime rather than a very pocket-sized portion of information technology. This tin can help study diseases like Parkinson's, which may not develop until a person has been alive for 40 to 50 years.

Disadvantages to Using Animals for Research

Some people believe that using animals, similar the chimpanzee shown here, for research is a bad idea because humans and other animals have dissimilar physiology. Image by Thomas Lersch.

Some people also believe that, fifty-fifty though animals have like biological systems to humans, they still may not brand good models for many enquiry questions. Some studies¹take reported that even after doing a lot of brute inquiry on a topic, it may remain difficult to use the findings of these studies in other contexts, like in a human or other animal.

Testing of the sleeping pill thalidomide is an instance of this. It was tested on meaning rats, mice, cats and guinea pigs to help sleeping without any bad side furnishings. But, when administered to pregnant women, it really had many negative effects on their children.

The opposite tin too be true. Experiments may show that a certain protocol is harmful to animals. But it may turn out to have positive furnishings in humans. Aspirin is an example of this. It was shown to be dangerous to animals, but many people now find it to be a useful medication.

Others debate that fifty-fifty if nosotros can use animals for enquiry, there are always other alternatives to use in place of animals. These might include using computer models, cell cultures, or finding non-invasive methods that tin can be used on humans. Similarly, many argue that using these alternative methods is cheaper than using animal models.

The Final Decision

In that location is still no consensus on whether it's ok to use animals in inquiry, then scientists and the public proceed to discuss and debate this topic. This has led to decisions about what animals should be used in enquiry, and besides the institution of rules and regulations for how those animals volition be treated while in this setting.

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References:

1. Jeffrey M. Perkel, "Life Science Technologies: Animal-Gratis Toxicology: Sometimes, in Vitro is Better," sciencemag.org (accessed Oct. xv, 2013)

Additional Images via Wikimedia Commons. Honeybee photo past Fir0002.

Source: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/why-study-animals-in-science

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