I once saw a toxicology graduate student's research poster for a study she had done on the comparative sensitivity of the enzyme, acetylcholinesterase to the inhibiting effects of the poison, parathion. The comparison was between blood samples taken from humans and lab rats. (Just to be clear...the blood was treated with the poison after it was drawn.) I can't remember which species, humans or rats, was more sensitive. But what I do remember was the huge amount of variation in the human responses compared to the tiny amount of variation in the rats. It was quite striking. The human values were all over the place, while the rat values all tightly clustered around an average.
Maybe I should not have been so surprised. Lab rats are bred to be a very similar group where each individual is very much like the next. But you sure can't say that about humans. I've seen the data.
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