Day 25: The Pack Rat

Ratatouille is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. "A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great chef despite his family's wishes, and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau" (Google).

I

saw this animal poem in a children's book entitled "Zoo Doings" written by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Paul O Zelinsky and published by Scholastic Inc in 1983.

The Pack Rat

by Jack Prelutsky
 

T

he pack rat's day is spent at play
Collecting useless stuff.
No matter what the pack rat's got,
He's never got enough.

Nails and tacks and wire and wax,
A knife, a fork, a feather,
Large or tiny, dull or shiny,
Tin or bone or leather.

Sticks and socks and spoons and rocks
And nuts that squirrels lose,
Rings and strings, peculiar things
A rat could never use.

The pack rat saves and stores in caves
Strange treasures smooth and knobby.
It's not from greed nor out of need,
He does it as his hobby.

O

n day twenty-five of the Season of Creation let us give credence to the pack rat that has contributed a lot to what our scientific world has discovered with regard to the human brain. For decades, scientists have used rodents, especially rats, as the main model for brain research because a lot of the structure and connectivity that exists in human brains also exists in this species of mammals. “Its brain is larger than that of a mouse, so it’s easier to study the structures,” said Joyce Peterson, a spokeswoman for the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Both mice and rats are rodents with some genetic differences. Rats have 21 pairs of chromosomes while mice have 20 chromosomal pairs. In humans, each cell normally contains 23 pairs, for a total of 46. With better imaging equipment the mouse had been found to have many similarities to the human genome. Thanks to the lowly mouse for its invaluable help in the study of diseases like hypertension and other complex ones. Many of the genes responsible for these diseases are shared between mice and humans. Another reason why brain and behavioral researchers have shifted to the lab mouse is its slightly shorter lifespan than a rat. One mouse year is equal to about 30 human years. This makes it more convenient for scientists to measure the effects of ageing.

I like Jack Prelutsky's "The Pack Rat" because one could see how the rat’s personality extends to humans too. 8thWorker.us