The Laboratory Mouse Monument

The Laboratory Mouse Monument is a monument in the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, located in the park near the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The monument was unveiled on July 1, 2013, and the opening was timed to coincide with the 120th anniversary of Novosibirsk. According to the director of the institute, Academician Nikolai Kolchanov, the monument symbolizes gratitude to the animal for the fact that humanity has the opportunity to use mice to study animal genes, molecular and physical mechanisms of diseases, and develop new drugs. “Here, the images of a laboratory mouse and a scientist are combined, because they are connected and serve the same cause. The mouse is captured at the moment of a scientific discovery. If you look closely at its gaze, you can see that this mouse has already come up with something. But the whole symphony of a scientific discovery, joy, “eureka!” have not yet sounded,” artist Andrei Kharkevich. A bronze laboratory mouse stands on a granite pedestal in a quiet park in the central part of Akademgorodok. Next to it, on the scientific alley, are miniature sculptures of other animals used by scientists.