Warning! Nearby construction can profoundly affect your experiments

This is meant to alert people to potentially major effects of construction projects on research results, Because we study the effects of stress on reg ulation of ACTH and corticosterone secretion and of serotonin receptors and stress on energy balance, we serve as an early warning system when things go awry, Most of our experiments include taking daily, or twice daily, meas urements of rat or mouse weights and food intake as well as stress hormone levels. We are highly sensitized to environmental disruption and we've show n previously the effects of construction on stress hormones (1). However, w e did not anticipate the change and disruption in energy balance that may o ccur in response to environmental perturbation. We provide two examples of these, below.