Pavlov's Dogs and Schrodinger's Cat

The use of animals in science is an emotive subject, but in Pavlov's Dogs and Schrödinger's Cat: Scenes from the Living Laboratory Rom Harré takes a different tack, looking at the many different ways in which, at different times in history, living things have contributed to scientific experiments.

The book looks at animals as detectors, for instance zebra fish which fluoresce in the presence of pollutants, and at the use of living things as measuring apparatus, for example finding the climate in the past via pollen gains. It goes on to examine the ways in which animals are used as models of humans, and the testing of hypotheses using animal experiments.The later chapters look at experiments on large communities of animals, at some example of deception in the studies of living things, and at 'virtual life' (although the inclusion of Schrödinger's Cat seemed mostly an excusefor a discussion of quantum mechanics).

Harré claims that the book is about animals as scientific apparatus rather than experiments on animals, but I felt that this was a rather artificial distinction, and sometimes made the book a bit stilted. The book isn't difficult to read, but if you're looking for a book of amusing anecdotes about animals and science then this isn't it. It's main benefit is the large variety of examples throughout history of links between animals and science. Hence if you are interested in the use of animals in science then I would think you will find these examples highly informative.