I conducted animal research for over thirty years, published over 40 scientific papers and conducted experiments in animal behavior, immunology, cancer, genetics, surgery, and mental health. My research subjects have included ground squirrels, sea lions, dolphins, deer, and children. 

My laboratory is best known for its work on mouse social emotions. We asked whether mice can experience social reward and empathy. With time, I began to question whether their captivity – life inside a standard shoebox-sized cage, typically with three other mice, might skew how they feel about their cage mates. This question is crucial to whether experiments on lab animals are relevant to human social disabilities. Caged for life inside a room with other people, I'd also be reclusive, yet we assumed that socially-disinterested mice had traits akin to autism. But what if the socially-disinterested mice were the healthy ones? Would anyone ever be social after living without any social refuge? And if my mice had feelings about one another, how did they feel about their cages? And what was caging doing to the rest of their biology? I learned that I wasn't the first scientist to ask questions like this. 

Science is about making discoveries that help us make sense of the world. People put their faith in what we do. And that means we need to scrutinize our work, make sense of it, and consider the implications. That's what we're paid for. But when science turns to consider the subjective lives of other animals, our practice remains stagnant – despite what we've learned. 

So, I left research science. Now I write about it. If you get past the scientific jargon, there's nothing particularly complicated about what we do. Mostly, it's ideas, then piecing together and following recipes. I write for people outside academia about how science operates, the culture that thrives on doing science, and the omissions we keep to ourselves. 

Thank you for visiting my website.