I don't know how many of you are aware of the torture poor lab animals go through while testing for toxicity of products being developed. Now, I'm not the PeTA kinda person, but I was glad to know that some scientists were working on working on ways to replace live animal testing of everything from cosmetics to pesticides with "high speed, automated robots" and "live cells grown in a laboratory." Apparently samples of chemicals will be dropped onto dishes containing human or animal cells grown in the lab. These will then be studied for signs of toxicity using a variety of biochemical and genetic tests. The ultimate goal is to develop non-animal based testing methods that are rigorous enough to be submitted for regulatory approval.

As of now, more than 2,000 compounds are being studied for toxicological effects on rodent and human cells. However, scientists say it will be many years before non animal-based tests become routine, if they prove successful at all.

Via -

Source