Abstract
Taking as my starting point research on knowledge practices in science, this article focuses on analyzing the vicissitudes of animal experimentation and the relationship between researchers and their rodents. The material presented here is the result of an ethnographic study at postgraduate program in biomedical engineering, whose laboratory in question conducts a wide variety of research related to ultrasonic radiation for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Many of these research projects use of mice and rats in their experimental setups. Employing historical sources regarding the selection process for murine strains and also ethnographic data gathered during quotidian laboratory procedures, I seek to discuss a specific variation of the agency of laboratory animals by asking the following questions: what do these rodents provoke in science through causing unforeseen through their uniqueness as living beings? What perplexities and questions do the lives and management of these animals produce in relation to scientists and their research?
Keywords:
laboratory ethnography; animal experimentation; rodents; science