Of Mice And Men,

plus the the perfect home,

in 1968, an expert on animal behavior and population control called John B. Calhoun built what was essentially a utopia for mice that was purpose built to satisfy their every need, dubbed “Universe 25”, Calhoun’s mouse utopia was built with the needs of its mouse inhabitants firmly in mind and was designed specifically to cater to their every whim, containing plentiful food, water, bedding and space, the enclosure was described as and I quote,

"A tank, 101 inches square, enclosed by walls 54 inches high. The first 37 inches of wall was structured so the mice could climb up, but they were prevented from escaping by 17 inches of bare wall above. Each wall had sixteen vertical mesh tunnels—call them stairwells—soldered to it. Four horizontal corridors opened off each stairwell, each leading to four nesting boxes. That means 256 boxes in total, each capable of housing fifteen mice."

initially the experiment proved successful and the mice lived in relative harmony and within a year, the population of eight super-healthy mice who were chosen to be the  nucleus of the experiment had swelled to a respectable 620 members, great care was taken to ensure the mice were taken care of, food and water was unlimited allowing mice to eat or drink whenever they pleased and there was always space and clean bedding available so females could rear young in peace and safety, but at day 315, something happened, within 2 years almost all had died out, but not from disease, so what happened? Grab a few mugs of coffee and read the report, if it happened to mice could it happen to men?