Heart of a Snake
Oct. 29th 2011
The Bermese Python
The Bermese python barely eats, but when it does, it hunts giant prey, prey that can be as big as the python itself. After killing the unfortunate animal, the python swallows it -- whole. But how? On one episode of Quirks and Quarks, the host Bob McDonald interviews Dr. Leslie Leinwand, a professor of molecular biology at the U of Colorado., about this fascinating animal. She says that digesting the prey would take a lot of digesting, and a normal sized stomach couldn’t handle it. So the python’s organs double in size in only 2 days time. Dr. Leinwand studied this characteristic, and found at least three fatty acids in the python’s blood that made this change possible. She and her colleagues found that this blood could work in other animals. They tested it on healthy mice, and their organs nearly reached twice their normal size. Dr. Leinwand hopes that one day this blood could be used to treat patients with heart disease.
My thoughts
I think that this discovery is amazing. The Bermese python could be the start of more healthy people and fewer deaths. I am really happy that there would be less deaths, as would many others, but it would create a problem with world population. Think about it: If everyone in the world was completely healthy, and no one could die of sickness, then the world would overflow with people. I only hope that won’t be any time soon
I really like how you put in your thoughts and how you care about people but at the same time care about the population.
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I thought it was amazing that they injected the mice with the fatty acids from the python's blood and the mice's organs doubled in size. That's a bit scary. Good comment about the world population, I agree with you.
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