Erik Stokstad

About the author: Erik Stokstad is the managing editor of Science NOW, Science magazine's online news service.

Many new technologies are being developed that are making animal testing more humane and reliable. Historically, scientists would anesthetize animals in order to provide test drugs orally and then monitor the animal's bodily functions. Sometimes scientists would infect mice with a disease, give them antibiotics, and then kill two mice every two hours to evaluate the medicine's effects. Now new sensors and monitors can be implanted in an animal to transmit data. Because these new sensors are less stressful for the animal, the data produced is more accurate and fewer animals are killed. New imaging techniques also reduce the animal's distress because they are less invasive than surgery. Imaging allows scientists to track disease in an animal...