MICE, COCAINE PROVE CANUCKS ARE MELLOW

It took cloned rodents ripped on cocaine to uncover the truth:
Canadians really are just, like, more mellow, eh?

Like it or not, Europeans generally sum up Canucks as less-excitable
cousins to the brash Yanks.

Along comes a cross-border study suggesting maybe, just maybe, that
arctic-tinged air and Canadian tap water may make us more mellow.

It certainly did something strange to a bunch of mice in a University
of Alberta lab in April 1998.

"It's one of those things that came out that's a bit of a surprise,"
said Dr. John Crabbe, a behavioural neuroscientist at Oregon Health
Services University in Portland.

Crabbe - joined by U of A psychologist Dr. Douglas Wahlsten and
another colleague in Albany, New York - injected small amounts of
cocaine into 128 genetically similar rodents, all 77 days old and
living under identical conditions.

You'd think they'd react identically. You'd think wrong.

According to a study published in yesterday's issue of Science
magazine, some of the Edmonton mice got visibly higher on coke than
American rodents.

At the same time, however, Crabbe said they were less "wired" - and
just quietly hung around in a maze, soaking up their surroundings,
until the high went down.

"We went nuts trying to control differences.

"We sent probably 2,000 e-mails and phone calls to try to eliminate
every possible environmental difference (before doing the tests),"
said Crabbe.

"Yet three strains of Edmonton mice responded more to coke. They ran
around more. Why? When you get the answer, let me know," said Crabbe.

The study is causing ripples in the scientific community because it
suggests slight environmental differences - ranging from their
handlers' behaviour to chemicals found in tap water - can be as much
of a factor in scientific experiments that crave consistency as slight
differences in genetics.