Sounds like history teachers might owe rats a big apology this morning: A team of researchers is now arguing that they were not, in fact, guilty of spreading the devastating bubonic plague across medieval Europe. It's just like My Cousin Vinny! » 2/24/15 1:45pm Tuesday 1:45pm

Chicago's rats are getting contraception. » 12/26/14 2:50pm 12/26/14 2:50pm

As our brother site Gawker has diligently reported, Condé Nast's office has a rat infestation. This is pretty common with new buildings, though it might seem at odds with the "new" nature of them; rats get in during construction, which gives the critters a significant amount of time to claim their turf before people… » 12/12/14 1:10pm 12/12/14 1:10pm

Earlier this month, Condé Nast commenced its long-anticipated move to 1 World Trade Center, whose landlord is counting on the magazine publisher to anchor the building and attract other hip companies to the fortified Financial District. The ongoing rodent problem at Vogue, however, might give some prospective… » 11/21/14 2:49pm 11/21/14 2:49pm

Courtesy the song "Welcome To New York," Taylor Swift has been named "NYC's Global Welcome Ambassador for Tourism," making one wonder if the song was just a super-genius Bloombergian scheme hatched by Swift and the tourism board to promote 1989 and also all those fugnacious condos they keep letting people build. » 10/27/14 6:10pm 10/27/14 6:10pm

Listen, Husky, I know you've been hurt before, but you need to let down that guard and let someone love you. Even if that someone is a super creepy red-eyed inanimate rat Halloween decoration. » 10/25/14 3:30pm 10/25/14 3:30pm

Ah, Paris. City of light. City of love. City of rats. » 7/29/14 1:15pm 7/29/14 1:15pm

A new study indicates that rodents are influenced by the scent of the sex of the researcher studying them, a finding that has could have big ramifications for numerous studies where animals are used. » 4/29/14 10:00am 4/29/14 10:00am

Important announcement: I've just hopped out of my DeLorean after a disastrous visit to the future and thought I should tell you what I saw there. No, it wasn't hover boards and sneakers that lace themselves. It was rats. Huge fucking rats everywhere you go and — guess what? — they run everything. » 3/31/14 11:30pm 3/31/14 11:30pm

A Swedish couple is making international headlines after witnessing the slow, agonizing death of a 16-inch rat that a trap could not kill. A SIXTEEN INCH RAT THAT A TRAP COULD NOT KILL. CUNTING SHIT GUYS. GREAT BOUNCING CHRISTBALLS. I'M GOING TO FAINT. » 3/26/14 8:30pm 3/26/14 8:30pm

Do you like cake? Are you one of those people who never got over childhood birthday parties and the sweet, smoky smell of snuffed candles mingling with buttercream icing? If you murmured "yes" to your computer, then the next sentence you read will horrify you and quite possibly turn you into a PIE person. An old… » 2/23/14 1:00pm 2/23/14 1:00pm

If you're in New York and wondering what the rat content of your block (and possibly your home) is, The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has a handy map for you to check out. » 1/25/14 6:56pm 1/25/14 6:56pm

I am this rat. You are this rat. We are all this rat. » 12/15/13 11:30pm 12/15/13 11:30pm

Another day, another bestiality lawsuit involving Jay Leno. » 11/18/13 7:15pm 11/18/13 7:15pm

This is a weird one: a veteran American Airlines flight attendant accused by her colleagues of smuggling a pet rat onto an international flight in her underwear has filed a lawsuit against the airline, claiming the accusations have resulted increased customs screenings and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. » 7/07/13 10:01pm 7/07/13 10:01pm

A study (scientific and rat-infested by its very nature) published recently in the International Journal of Eating Disorders is the first ever to establish sex differences in rates of binge eating in animals. Well, not animals, really, so much as the scuttling disease portmanteaus we affectionately call “rats,” but… » 5/02/13 10:00am 5/02/13 10:00am

Exercise is good for you, or so science has led us to believe. Regular exercise can confer such abstract, qualitative benefits as: stress reduction, anxiety easement, and optimism enhancement. It can also help you look more like your favorite member of the X-Men, minus powers. However, maybe science has deceived us.… » 3/14/13 3:30pm 3/14/13 3:30pm

This is totally the kind of mind-blowing advances we expected we'd find in 2013, growing up way back in the 20th century: a Duke neuroscientist was actually able to link two rats' brains—using electrode implants—so that they could communicate through their minds. » 2/28/13 12:05pm 2/28/13 12:05pm

Good news for people who enjoy being disgusted — New York City, Capital of the World, is being slowly overrun by rats. Sure, NYC has always been a place for rats to come and prosper, but things have gotten increasingly worse in the months following Hurricane Sandy when the flooding and rain forced the rodents to head… » 2/20/13 6:05pm 2/20/13 6:05pm

Before I moved to NYC, I was embarrassingly afraid of rats. Once, I walked out of the back door of my apartment in Chicago and saw a gigantic rat running down the stairs right past me and I screamed so loudly that people on other floors came outside to make sure I wasn't currently in the process of being murdered.… » 10/31/12 2:31pm 10/31/12 2:31pm