It’s just in mice! This scientist is calling out hype in science reporting

Just because a drug performs well in mice doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll have the same result in humans, and yet news stories and press releases often fail to clearly communicate that. The new Twitter account @justsaysinmice hopes to make that difference clear — and scientist James Heathers has racked up nearly 40,000 followers in the four days since the account has gone live. I caught up with Heathers on his viral success, and below is a snippet of our conversation:

• Why he started the account: “Just find any press release on EurekAlert! or Medical Xpress or one of those. And see how long [into the story] it takes you to figure out animal research. And when it directly affects people a lot of the time — in my estimation at least — it’s too damn low.”
• On the account going viral: “There’s lots of people yelling ‘in mice’ in their heads — it’s just more than I thought it was.”
• The takeaway: “I hope people think it’s funny, and I hope it helps. That’s it.”

Read our full conversation here.