According to the BBC, scientists are working on a number of novel ways to get animals out of the laboratory, replacing our cuddly little friends with high speed automated robots or live cells grown in the laboratory. As long as the robots aren’t artificially intelligent this could be a substantial step forwards, allowing everything from cosmetics to pesticides to be tested for toxicity. Sounds preferable to the traditional system. It’s even faster and cheaper. The overall goal is to model a live human being digitally so more complex drugs and potential carcinogens could be tested.