Kingsnakes Go for the Big Squeeze Heat Could Lead to Tiny Mammals

Home , Lampropeltis getula, Pantherophis

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years, but the star is unlikely to University of New Hampshire from six species, measuring be engulfed by the black hole, in Durham and her colleagues the cross-sectional area of

(CC BY 4.0) (CC BY say the authors. measured the size of fossil the animals’ muscles, and Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 467, teeth from four common quantifying the pulling force 2199–2216 (2017) mammal species from the that the snakes use to escape PLOS BIOL. PLOS ./ Bighorn Basin in Wyoming, predators and the pressure used ENERGY ET AL ET as a proxy for body size. The to constrict prey. Muscle area fossils, including those of an and pulling force increased Sodium battery ancestral horse and a rabbit- with size for all snakes, but the sized, hoofed animal, spanned three kingsnake (Lampropeltis) S. BENGTSON S. BENGTSON packs a punch a time period that included species had significantly A cheap, rechargeable sodium- a climate-warming event higher constriction power based battery could one day called the Eocene Thermal per unit of body weight than deliver high power at room Maximum 2, which occurred three ratsnake (Pantherophis) 100 μm temperature thanks to its 53 million years ago and was species, which are larger hybrid solid electrolyte. less hot than the PETM. constrictors preyed on Electrolytes allow electrical The team found that the by kingsnakes (pictured, been used in photosynthesis. charge to flow between a rabbit-sized animal shrank Lampropeltis getula eating a This discovery may mean battery’s electrodes. Liquid by about 15% during the later Texas ratsnake, Pantherophis that dates of divergence for key electrolytes can leak and warming event. The ancient obsoletus). parts of the tree of life need to tend to react with sodium horse species decreased in This strong crushing ability be recalibrated, the authors say. metal, an abundant, low-cost size by about 14%, whereas may result from the snakes’ PLoS Biol. 15, e2000735 (2017) material used for electrodes previous research suggested distinctive posture during in some batteries, whereas that a closely related horse constriction — regularly DRUG DISCOVERY purely solid electrolytes are shrank by roughly 30% during aligned coils wrapped around poor conductors at room the PETM. the prey — that allows them CRISPR finds temperature. Shufeng Song at The authors hypothesize that to apply more pressure, the drug synergy Chongqing University in China reduced size could have helped authors say. and his colleagues developed the animals to disperse heat J. Exp. Biol. 220, 1154–1161 Certain combinations of a hybrid solid electrolyte for by increasing their surface‑to- (2017) drugs might kill drug-resistant sodium batteries by combining volume ratio, or could be due tumours, and a method based solid polyethylene oxide, to dietary changes or climate- EVOLUTION on the CRISPR–Cas9 gene- sodium perchlorate and change-related drought. editing system offers a way to silica with an ionic liquid. Sci. Adv. 3, e1601430 (2017) Oldest algal find them. They tested this in a sodium- fossils found Tumours often become metal battery and observed ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR resistant to individual drugs, high conductivity at room Fossils of organisms leading clinicians to use temperature — a step towards Kingsnakes go for resembling red algae suggest combinations of medicines increased power — and high the big squeeze that multicellular life may in the hope of thwarting stability over 56 cycles. have emerged on Earth some resistance. Michael Bassik The electrolyte is a Kingsnakes have superior 400 million years earlier than and his colleagues at Stanford promising material for safer crushing power, allowing them previously thought. University in California and more efficient sodium to squeeze bigger snakes to Fossils of the earliest algae — developed a method that batteries, the authors suggest. death, even when these snakes which are closely related to the systematically disables two J. Mater. Chem. A are also constrictors. ancestors of modern plants genes at a time in cells. They http://doi.org/b2vm (2017) David Penning at Missouri — are rare and, until now, used the system to knock out Southern State University in the most ancient specimen 21,321 pairs of potential drug CLIMATE-CHANGE BIOLOGY Joplin and Brad Moon at the was around 1.2 billion years targets in leukaemia cells, University of Louisiana at old. Stefan Bengtson at the looking for combinations that Heat could lead to Lafayette studied 182 snakes Swedish Museum of Natural work synergistically to kill tiny mammals History in Stockholm and his cancer cells. colleagues studied fossils from The team found that Mammals might respond Chitrakoot in India, and found disabling two genes called to global warming by two types of multicellular BCL2L1 and MCL1 killed shrinking in size. colony dating to 1.6 billion drug-resistant cells. Drugs that

DAVID PENNING DAVID During a large years ago. One is a thread- inhibited the proteins encoded warming event called like form (Rafatazmia by these genes killed more the Palaeocene– chitrakootensis, pictured), leukaemia cells than each of the Eocene Thermal whereas the other is lobe- two medicines did individually. Maximum (PETM), shaped (Ramathallus Nature Biotechnol. http://dx.doi. some 56 million years lobatus). Using 3D X-ray org/10.1038/nbt.3834 (2017) ago, mammals became microscopy, the team smaller. To see how found that the colonies NATURE.COM common this climate-driven contained structures For the latest research published by dwarfing might have been, characteristic of red algae, Nature visit: Abigail D’Ambrosia of the including some that may have www.nature.com/latestresearch