Those Men In White Coats and Little White Mice...

Men in white coats have come to the conclusion that memory can be inherited...in mouses. They think it's only a matter of time before they prove it can be inherited in humans as well...

So, if you want or need to know where your fear of heights comes from, you'll be able to blame your first cousin three times removed on your Mother's side, because you've drawn the short straw and inherited his memory of falling off a cliff while intoxicated on Scrumpy...that'll probably explain your need to holiday in Cornwall every year as well.

I'm not a scientist by any manner or means and completely fail to see the connection between mouses and humans...but they frightened adult mice witless with the scent of Apple Blossom and discovered the babies they gave birth to were also alarmed by the perfume of Apple Blossom...don't be looking at me...I just read the article.

It does puzzle me somewhat when laboratory mice are used for experiments which are then linked to humans...maybe if it were pigs then I'd not be such a doubting Thomas...the average pig has the intelligence of a three year old child...all the more reason not to eat pork...but what do I know.

But mice? Little white mice deliberately frightened half to death with the scent of Apple Blossom...perhaps the blokes in white coats used the contents of a bottle of Lenor or Comfort fabric softener rather than a branch from an old Apple tree in full bloom...all those chemical smells would be enough to alarm anyone.

I'd quite like to talk to those blokes in their white coats secreted away in anonymous buildings...I'd like to ask them how they connect research on mice to making a statement about inherited memory in humans...

But then I'd be wanting to release all those little mice with their bright beady eyes and twitching whiskers...I'd be wanting to promise them that'd they'd never be scared by the scent of Apple Blossom ever again...

And that would never do.