Scientific discoveries this week: 10-31-11
Boulder, Colorado – Researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder found that the Burmese python exhibits a unique trait when it consumes a meal. The massive predators often go months without eating, and when they finally do eat it is usually a very large meal, often a large mammal such as deer. After consuming these large meals, the snakes’ hearts grow roughly 40% in size, presumably to keep up with the massive demand from the digestive tract. This remarkable heart growth seems to be the result of an influx of a specific blend of fatty acids into the bloodstream of the snake. When injecting mice with the same ratio of three fatty acids generated by the snakes, researchers noted similar results.