> For those interested, and please don't let this become a PETA thing,
> these gizmos are "installed" in the skull of a rabbit and then used to
> raise and lower a cannula in the brain, which is then used to inject
> drugs into precisely specified locations, activating and deactivating
> parts of the brain to study learning.

Oh, great. I remember vaguely that one of the reasons for which brass is
not ok for in vivo is the fact that it has to be used necessarily with
steel tools (like blades). The resulting battery (when steel touches brass
directly or through a solution with a different conductivity) and its
electro-chemical products, and the corrosion that should ensue, are
undesirable, to put it mildly. Maybe your rabbits will behave like that
battery manufacturer's ones in the tv ads, i.e. run forever. I would test
the assemblies in physiological solution for a week or so before using
them.

glad not to be a rabbit,

Peter the not rabbit

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