The show described an experiment with mice. Someone wanted to find out what would happen if there were too many mice in too little space. So they built a mouse house. It was more of a condominium development really, a large box with a main common area and separate little sleeping compartments for the mice and their little families. I don't know how they came up with the number, but the scientists figured that about three hundred mice could live in reasonable comfort there before overcrowding became severe. Then they put a few mice inside and let the population build gradually; or at least as gradually as mouse libidos would permit.

Time went by and the mice were happy and healthy. The scientists kept the mouse house fastidiously clean and well supplied with plenty of food and fresh water. The mice, of course, did what comes naturally to mice and their numbers grew exponentially.

As the population soared to somewhere around two hundred (I forget the exact number), some of the mice began to exhibit aberrant behavior of two main and distinct types. The first was extreme aggression. Certain individuals would fight at the drop of a hat, over anything or nothing at all. Many were injured or even killed in the vicious brawling that erupted with accelerating frequency once the population reached this certain level. The second, and possibly more disturbing, behavior type noted seemed to be more of a self-centered anxiety. These mice would spend endless hours wandering in small circles or energetically chasing their tails. Some took their penchant for self abuse further, pulling off their own fur in tufts, or even gnawing at their own limbs and bodies, creating open wounds from which they would eventually die if they happened to avoid death at the teeth of one of the aforementioned aggressive types.

The scientists observed and took notes. They had been quite mistaken in their estimate of how much living space a mouse needed to stay healthy and sane but the manifestations of severe overcrowding were well within the range of the expected. The population of the mouse house continued to grow, albeit more slowly due to the growing mayhem within the four plywood walls, until it reached (if memory serves) about two hundred sixty individuals. That's when the mice started dying in droves. This did not surprise the scientists, either. They assumed that the population merely needed to stabilize at a level at which at the mice could live without the extreme stress caused by the overcrowding.

But the mice continued to die. Instead of dipping marginally or dramatically, the entire population of the mouse house ceased to exist. Virtually overnight. Down to the last mouse.

What had happened? The program explained that more research needed to be done (no shit, Sherlock) and would be done. As yet, I have seen nor heard nothing more on the subject.

I realize that we aren't mice, but...