The ''Monument to the laboratory mouse'' is a sculpture in

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...

Akademgorodok Akademgorodok ( rus, Академгородок, p=ɐkəˌdʲemɡərɐˈdok, "Academic Town") is a part of the Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, located south of the city center and about west of Koltsovo. It is the edu ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It is located in a park in front of the

Institute of Cytology and Genetics Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (russian: Институт цитологии и генетики СО РАН) is a research institute based in Novosibirsk, Russia. It was founded in 195 ...

of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

, and was completed on July 1, 2013, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of the founding of the city. The monument commemorates the sacrifice of the mice in genetic research used to understand biological and physiological mechanisms for developing new drugs and curing of diseases.

Description

The monument, which sits on a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

pedestal, is of a

laboratory mouse The laboratory mouse or lab mouse is a small mammal of the order Rodentia which is bred and used for scientific research or feeders for certain pets. Laboratory mice are usually of the species ''Mus musculus''. They are the most commonly used ...

wearing

pince-nez Pince-nez ( or , plural form same as singular; ) is a style of glasses, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that are supported without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose. The name comes from French ''pincer'', "to pinch ...

on the tip of its nose. The

mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

holds knitting needles in its paws and is shown knitting a double helix of DNA. The bronze figure is itself only 70 cm (27½”) high, but the total height of the monument including the pedestal is 2.5 meters (98"). The DNA spiral emerging from the knitting needles winds to the left, thus showing that it is the still poorly understood

Z-DNA Z-DNA is one of the many possible double helical structures of DNA. It is a left-handed double helical structure in which the helix winds to the left in a zigzag pattern, instead of to the right, like the more common B-DNA form. Z-DNA is thought ...

- this symbolic of scientific research that is still to be done. In contrast, the more common B-DNA (depicted in school lessons) winds to the right.

Inscription

Translated from Russian:

Background

The foundation stone of the monument was laid on June 1, 2012, in honor of the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics. The design for the mouse was the creation of the

artist Andrey Kharkevich, who made more than ten sketches before settling on a final design. It was from among the different versions of the classic and stylized image animals that a mouse knitting the DNA helix was selected. Andrei Kharkevich described his design, stating, "It combines both the image of a laboratory mouse and a scientist, because they are interconnected and serve the same cause. The mouse is captured at the moment of scientific discovery. If you look closely at her eyes, you can see that this mouse has already come up with something. But the whole symphony of scientific discovery, joy, "eureka!" have not sounded yet." Sculptor Alexei Agrikolyansky, who made the statue, confessed that it had not been easy to capture that moment as the mouse was obviously not human and yet he had to produce a character and emotions for the mouse that were believable and, while maintaining the anatomical proportions, create something that neither looked like a cartoon character nor a real mouse. The sculpture was cast from bronze in

Tomsk Tomsk ( rus, Томск, p=tomsk, sty, Түң-тора) is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, located on the Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. The city is a not ...

by Maxim Petrov.

References

External links

* {{commonscat-inline, Monument to lab mouse, ''Monument to lab mouse'' Laboratory mice Science and technology in Siberia Sovetsky District, Novosibirsk Outdoor sculptures in Russia Mice and rats in art Animal sculptures Science in art Monuments and memorials in Russia