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I have read hundreds of research papers, and I don't think I've ever seen one that described the temperature that the rat housing is kept at. It's definitely not something that's controlled for right now.

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Oh, totally understood, that clearly ought to change!

My only point was, the article was framing this as an issue of scientist comfort, ie human researchers don't want to work in hot labs. I don't see why they should have to, at least in most cases.

We study rats because they're an inexpensive and ethical replacement for humans, with the assumption that some of the research will carry over to other mammals. It's harder for that work to translate over if we keep them in abnormal environments that affect their behavior or physiology.

Is it even possible not to "keep them in abnormal environments that affect their behavior or physiology"? Putting a rate in a cage alone is an abnormal environment for a rat.

The point is to reduce confounders as much as possible.

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