They're almost as big as it's head!

So being a research scientist I'm always interested in learning new things and I'm lucky enough to have a job that constantly exposes me to new things. Some of these things are neat, like the process to make nylon, you just simply pull a membrane that forms between two immissible solutions. Other things are just kind of boring, like most chemical syntheses, which result in a clear liquid or a white solid...oooh, how exciting!

Other things however are just fucking odd. Like seeing how big a rat's testicles are!

Now, you're probably wondering why I've been looking at rat testicles, well it's nothing as perverted as you might think. One of the research projects in our group involves studying neurotransmitters in live rat brains. To do this a rat is sedated and laid down with a probe in it's head and it's testicles poking out like leg fat leg stumps next to the tail. And let me tell you, those things are huge, frankly they are about the size of it's head. Now imagine what your life would be like with testicles the size of your head! Just one more reason I'm glad I'm not a rat.

Oh and if you're interested in why rat's have such large testicles there's a web page dedicated to the topic. I haven't read it, though I'm pretty sure it has to do with the need/opportunity to breed a lot; unlike gorillas who have tiny testicles...ok, I know way too much about testicles, I'm going to stop now.