The Intel contest is the premier science competition for high school students, so all semifinalists earn time in the spotlight. But Ms. Garvey has received far more than the 299 others this year: She and her family are newly homeless, living in a Suffolk County shelter.

“It’s not bad,” she said. “It’s a nice place.”

Her parents were injured in a car accident last year. Her father, a cabdriver, was able to keep driving. Her mother, a nurse’s assistant, could not work for more than half a year. The eldest of three children, Ms. Garvey tried to help with the family finances, applying for jobs at Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. “Nobody called me back,” she said.

The Garveys were evicted from their home on Dec. 31.

Through the turmoil, Ms. Garvey continued working with her mussels, studying a dynamic that plays out in ecosystems around the world.

The mussel species, Geukensia demissa, or ribbed mussel, is native to Long Island Sound. The Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus, is not. It is a predatory interloper that arrived in the waters near Cape May, N.J., in 1988, and has since spread from Maine to North Carolina.

The crabs like to eat mussels.

The scientific question was whether the ribbed mussels would just sit there and be eaten by the new predator, or had nature provided them with a means of defending themselves?

Ms. Garvey collected mussels from different parts of Flax Pond, a salt marsh on the North Shore of Long Island. She compared the shell length, width, weight and other measurements of those that lived where Asian shore crabs were prevalent with those that lived in areas with few crabs.

She found that the mussels that lived in areas where the crabs were prevalent had thicker shells. Was that because the Asian shore crabs ate the mussels they could pry open most easily, leaving thicker-shelled survivors, or were the mussels able to grow greater protection in response to the predators?

In a laboratory at Stony Brook University, Ms. Garvey put some young mussels in tanks with the crabs, although the crabs were in cages. In other tanks, mussels lived alone. After 65 days, she found that the mussels that shared their tank with the crabs had developed thicker shells than the ones that lived alone.

The finding suggests that chemicals released by the Asian shore crabs in the water set off a defense mechanism in the mussels: they produce thicker shells that fend off predators. When the crabs are not around, the mussels do not pad their shells.

During the school year, Ms. Garvey spent about a dozen hours a week on her mussel research, and much more during the summer. In all, she spent two and a half years on the work, as part of a research curriculum that Rebecca Grella, a Brentwood High School chemistry teacher, successfully pitched to administrators eight years ago.

More than 60 students now take part. Ms. Grella, a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook, took advantage of her university connections to match Ms. Garvey with Dianna Padilla, a professor in the ecology and evolution department at Stony Brook, for the mussel research.

Brentwood is a melting-pot community with more of a reputation for gangs than for budding scientists, but last year, Ms. Grella’s efforts paid off when three of her students were named Intel semifinalists.

This year, two weeks after her family became homeless, Ms. Garvey found out she was among this year’s semifinalists.

She said she could not imagine what her life would be like if she had not had the opportunity to study mussels. “Maybe flunking out of school, honestly,” she said.

Instead, she hopes to attend Brown or Yale. Ms. DeGeneres’s show has already given her a $50,000 scholarship.

On Tuesday evening, Ms. Garvey will be in Washington, a guest of Mr. Israel, sitting in the House of Representatives gallery listening to President Obama deliver the State of the Union address. On Wednesday, she will find out if she is one of the 40 Intel finalists for a top prize of $100,000.

Life will soon resume an air of normalcy. A day after Intel announced its semifinalists, Suffolk County officials said they had found a home for the Garveys.

Then there will be time for mussels.

“The marsh — it smells and stuff,” Ms. Garvey said. “But I still love it. It’s home.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/science/after-homelessness-honors-from-a-national-science-fair.html

BARBARA KLEIN: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we will tell about the brain disorder known as epilepsy. Many people do not understand epilepsy. Medical experts are working to understand it and improve the lives of those who suffer from it.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Epilepsy is a medical condition that produces seizures. A seizure happens when a sudden increase of electrical activity interferes with normal operations in the brain.

Nerve cells use electrical particles to communicate with each other. Millions of electrical particles pass between nerve cells in the brain. When the brain has a sudden burst of electricity, the body experiences physical changes called epileptic seizures. Victims can shake uncontrollably for brief periods. They also can temporarily lose the ability to think clearly or communicate.

New research is helping to explain how cells communicate to cause conditions like epilepsy.  Douglas Fields is a researcher with America’s National Institutes of Health. Two years ago, he showed that a chemical called ATP could be linked to disorders like epilepsy and chronic pain.

STEVE EMBER: Most seizures can last anywhere between thirty seconds and two minutes. These seizures do not cause permanent damage. However, a seizure is considered a medical emergency if it lasts more than five minutes. One in ten adults will have a seizure during their life.

Different kinds of seizures result when different parts of the brain are affected. If electrical activity increases in only one area of the brain, the person will have what doctors call a partial seizure. Many times, people may suffer a partial seizure and not know it. They might note strange feelings in an arm or leg. They also might hear noises or look straight ahead for a few minutes.

Sometimes the individual will have an uncontrolled movement, like turning the head to one side. Most partial seizures last less than ninety seconds. So it is not always possible for others to recognize them as signs of a disorder.

BARBARA KLEIN: When people hear the word seizure, they often think of what doctors call a grand mal seizure. A person experiencing this kind of seizure will fall to the ground. His or her body will become firm and start to shake. After a few minutes, the individual will stop moving, appear awake and know what has happened. He or she may move slowly for about thirty minutes. Some grand mal seizures start with partial seizures and become worse.

Experts have reported different reasons why an individual may suffer epileptic seizures. For example, older adults may develop epilepsy because of an infection, stroke, or Alzheimer’s disease. Head injuries or a lack of oxygen at birth may damage the electrical system in the brain. Other causes are poisoning and high body temperatures.

STEVE EMBER: This month, researchers in Australia reported finding a genetic cause for epilepsy in babies. Researchers from the University of South Australia and the University of Melbourne studied twenty-three families. Earlier testing showed they all had one or more family members with a condition called benign familial infantile epilepsy.

The researchers identified the cause as a single mutation, or change, in the structure of a gene known as PRRT2. Genetic testing showed the mutation affected nineteen of the twenty-three families.

University of South Australia’s Susan Heron said babies with the disorder often suffer seizures from the age of six months. The children outgrow the seizures after a year or two, but can develop a movement disorder.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: The World Health Organization estimates that fifty million people around the world have epilepsy. Nearly ninety percent of cases are in developing countries. The WHO says many people in these areas suffer from epilepsy because of local conditions. In developing countries, people have a greater chance of experiencing a medical condition or disease that can lead to permanent brain damage.

The WHO says misunderstandings about epilepsy have resulted in laws against people with the disorder. For years, it was not illegal for American businesses to discriminate against individuals who suffered seizures. Now, a law called the Americans with Disabilities Act of nineteen ninety protects the civil rights of people with disabilities in the United States.

STEVE EMBER: The World Health Organization says many people with epilepsy receive no treatment. However, many treatments are available.

Generally, medicine is the first treatment of choice for epilepsy. The Epilepsy Foundation of America says different kinds of medicines can stop or control different kinds of seizures. There are now more than twenty kinds of drugs on the market. These drugs work best only after they reach what experts call a desired level in the body. It might take months to identify the right drug to control the disorder because each one may cause problems. These include weight gain or loss, eye or stomach problems, sleepiness and loss of balance. Some people may suffer depression, or have problems thinking or talking after taking some drugs.

BARBARA KLEIN: In nineteen ninety-seven, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a treatment called Vagus Nerve Stimulation for some seizure patients. It is designed for adults and young people who have partial seizures that are not controlled in other ways.

In this treatment, electrical energy enters the brain through the vagus nerve in the neck. The electricity comes from a small power supply placed under the skin in the chest. Medical experts set the device to provide a small amount of energy every few minutes. The patient can also send a few seconds of energy through the nerve if he or she feels that a seizure is near. This has been known to stop a seizure.

The Epilepsy Foundation says people using Vagus Nerve Stimulation still must take anti-seizure medicines. But the amount may decrease as the treatment continues.

STEVE EMBER: Another treatment is an operation to remove the part of the brain suspected of causing epileptic seizures. This is done only when medicines fail to control the disorder. One requirement for the operation is that doctors be able to remove the suspected area without damaging speech, memory or other abilities.

Other kinds of operations can block the spread of electrical activity in the brain. The Epilepsy Foundation says doctors are performing more operations now because new information has increased their safety. Still, some people get no help from operations and others continue to need medication for their seizures.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Some people with epilepsy may be able to control their seizures by controlling what they eat. The ketogenic diet was developed in the first part of the twentieth century. It is very high in fats and low in carbohydrates. It makes the body burn fat for energy instead of sugar.

This diet requires family cooperation if the patient is a child. It also requires trained medical supervision. The patient must be in a hospital for the first part of the treatment. The amount of food and liquid the patient can have at each meal must be carefully weighed for each individual. The patient should obey the dietary restrictions for at least one month before experts know if the treatment is successful.

STEVE EMBER: The Epilepsy Foundation says about one third of children on the ketogenic diet become seizure-free or almost seizure-free. Another third improve but still experience some seizures. The others cannot continue with the diet or it has no effect on their seizures.

Possible effects of the diet include digestive problems, loss of fluids in the body, and development of kidney stones or gall stones. Another danger of the diet is that high levels of fat could develop in the blood.

BARBARA KLEIN: People being treated for epilepsy in one of these ways can still suffer an unexpected seizure. So what can you do if you see someone in this situation?

Experts say the most important thing is to keep the individual safe until the seizure stops. Stay with the person. Clear the area of anything that could cause harm. If you can, turn the body on one side. Do not force the mouth open or hold the person down. The seizure will stop on its own.  Then speak to the person calmly and offer help to get home.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake. Our producer was June Simms. I’m Steve Ember.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein.  Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Article source: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/science-technology/Epilepsy---A-Disorder-Suffered-By-Millions-Around-the-World-137913163.html

Students who conduct the labs in NSTA’s Take-Home
Chemistry as supplements to classroom instruction will enhance
higher-level thinking, improve process skills, and raise high-stakes
test scores. Many of the exercises involve skills such as measuring,
graphing, calculating, and extrapolating graphs and cover topics such as
moles, chromatography, chemical reactions, and titration.

Each lab includes a student page, a teacher page, an objective, a
purpose, a materials list, notes, and post-lab questions, making Take-Home
Chemistry a useful tool for improving how student learning in
chemistry.

About the Author

Michael Horton has taught chemistry, physics, and technology in
Southern California for more than 10 years and has also been the science
coordinator and AVID administrator at two county offices of education
for six years.

You can browse sample pages of this new book free at the NSTA Science
Store website at www.nsta.org/store.

For additional information or to purchase Take-Home
Chemistry and other books from NSTA Press, visit the NSTA Science
Store at www.nsta.org/store.
To order by phone, call 800-277-5300 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET
weekdays. The 244-page book is priced at $27.95 and
discount-priced for NSTA members at $22.36 (Stock # PB240X2, ISBN
# 978-1-936137-39-8).

The Arlington, Va.-based National Science Teachers Association is the
largest professional organization in the world promoting excellence and
innovation in science teaching and learning for all. NSTA’s current
membership includes more than 55,000 science teachers, science
supervisors, administrators, scientists, business and industry
representatives, and others involved in science education.

NSTA Press^{produces 20–25 new books each year. Focused on the
PreK–college market and specifically aimed at teachers of science, NSTA
Press titles offer a unique blend of accurate scientific content and
sound teaching strategies.}

Article source: http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20120123005029/en/NSTA/National-Science-Teachers-Association/Take-Home-Chemistry

Dutch theoretical physicist and prolific science popularizer Robbert Dijkgraaf has been tapped as the new director of the prestigous Institute for
Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, the former home of Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and many other luminaries. Dijkgraaf, who
worked at IAS from 1991 until 1992, is a professor at the University of Amsterdam and president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
(KNAW).

In an interview with ScienceInsider, Dijkgraaf, 51, called IAS a “magical place that gave my career a decisive new impetus.”

An internationally renowned expert in string theory, a press release issued by IAS today says Dijkgraaf “found surprising and
deep connections between matrix models, string theory, topological string theory and supersymmetric quantum field theory.”

IAS, which has schools of Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. does not give out degrees, has no experimental
facilities, and is home to a permanent faculty of fewer than 30. Every year, it welcomes some 190 talented scientists to come do theoretical research
for a few years without the distraction of teaching obligations or mundane issues like housing. “As someone said, it’s a place with no excuses,” says
Dijkgraaf.

In his own country, Dijkgraaf is best known as an infectiously enthusiastic science communicator who couples academic prestige with boyish curiosity.
Besides being a columnist for daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad, he set up a Web site with physics experiments for children and

frequently introduced promising young scientists to a wider audience in a popular daily talkshow. Since he took over in 2008, he also worked to give KNAW a more dynamic and prominent role in Dutch
scientific and policy debates. Dijkgraaf is co-chair of the InterAcademy Council, a job he plans to
keep.

“It’s an excellent choice,” says Erik Verlinde, a colleague at the University of Amsterdam who also spent 5 years at IAS. “He knows that world very
well, he has the management experience, and the past few years have given him many international contacts.” In a statement today, KNAW Vice President Pearl Dykstra said “it is a real coup for the IAS to get him on
board.”

Dijkgraaf says that in addition to his administrative role, he plans to return to active science, which the KNAW presidency left him little time for.
But he also “emphatically” wants to continue being a strong voice for science communication and education. “I’m not sure how exactly, but IAS has a
very special place in the world so I think there will be great opportunities.”

Raising money will be another one of his jobs—and a new one for Dijkgraaf. In August, two members of the IAS Board of Trustees gave the institute a
challenge grant of $100 million, to be matched by $100 million from other donors over the next 4 years. “I look forward to that in the sense that I
know there are many beautiful stories to tell about the science at the institute,” says Dijkgraaf—who has been assured it will be a minor part of his
job.

Dijkgraaf will be the ninth IAS director in IAS’s 71-year history and the second European; he succeeds British mathematical physicist Peter Goddard,
who will continue as a professor in IAS’s School of Natural Sciences.

Article source: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/dutch-physicist-and-science-educator.html?ref=ra

The challenge, as the president noted, isn’t just attracting students to STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) but retaining them, especially in college. According to a November 4 article in The New York Times,

Studies have found that roughly 40 percent of students planning engineering and science majors end up switching to other subjects or failing to get any degree. That increases to as much as 60 percent when pre-medical students, who typically have the strongest SAT scores and high school science preparation, are included, according to new data from the University of California at Los Angeles. That is twice the combined attrition rate of all other majors.

That’s a stunning trend that requires a radical change in how the sciences are taught at the undergraduate level. The foundation that I lead — Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the oldest foundation in America devoted wholly to science — has provided more than 12,000 research grants in the sciences to colleges and universities across America in its 99-year history. As we approach our Centennial next year, it’s worth underscoring the importance of research to retaining the science students upon whom our nation depends for the scientists, engineers, and science-literate citizens who underpin our national commitment to innovation.

In his book Science in Solution: the Impact of Undergraduate Research on Student Learning, noted Grinnell College professor David Lopatto documented the advantages of increased access to research in the retention and development of undergraduate science students. (The book, published last year by Research Corporation for Science Advancement, is available for free download at www.rescorp.org.)

Dr. Lopatto’s study surveyed more than 10,000 students at more than 150 U.S. colleges and universities — thanks to grants from the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute — and determined that, among many other benefits, undergraduate research is good pedagogy. Contrary to the traditional view that undergraduate research should only follow completion of prerequisite lecture and lab courses, Dr. Lopatto’s study underscores the value of involving younger students early (even as some try to determine their academic interests), engaging them through research, and requiring only the “just in time” science learning needed to participate in the research.

It’s the engagement of students that should be our priority. And, as a former dean of sciences at a liberal arts college, I know first-hand that too often that’s not the case. Introductory science classes, for instance, are frequently used as a way of weeding out students instead of cultivating them. The traditional lecture format, a staple of introductory science classes, actually fails miserably as a technique for encouraging student learning — with students learning less than half as much as they do with active engagement.

Course content should be changed to better reflect the process of science and its role in today’s world. Content should be taught within the context of a larger societal issue, a relevant story or timely topic, such as environmental, health, or infrastructure issues.

Students should also be introduced early on to the interdisciplinary nature of today’s science and engineering. That would both reflect the reality of discovery and innovation and increase the likelihood that, if a science or engineering student chooses to leave one field of study for another, that student might go on to choose another field of science or engineering, rather than a completely different field.

And as Dr. Lopatto has shown, students should have the opportunity to be directly involved with their professors in original research. That process of discovery is often what proves most enticing to potential scientists.

In September, the Association of American Universities (AAU) announced a five-year initiative to improve the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning in STEM fields at its member institutions. AAU President Hunter R. Rawlings said at the time,

In recent years, researchers, many of them at our universities, have learned a great deal about the most effective methods of teaching specific STEM subjects. We now need to disseminate these methods widely among universities so that more faculty members will adopt the best teaching practices in their classrooms. AAU is not conducting another study or research project on STEM education. We are moving to implement the results of the latest research into science and math pedagogy.

A top priority, he went on to say, will be “the synergy between teaching and research. Bringing these together in the classroom benefits education as well as research.”

That’s a fundamental shift that’s needed in STEM education: increasing dramatically the opportunities for students to experience “the synergy between teaching and research” as early and often as possible. It’s important at all levels of education, but it should be fundamental to undergraduate STEM education. We’re simply losing too many talented students to other fields, and our nation’s economic success depends on stemming that outward flow.

James M. Gentile is president and CEO of Research Corporation for Science Advancement, America’s second-oldest foundation, and the first devoted wholly to science.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-m-gentile/us-math-and-science-education-_b_1086177.html

As the
Dispatch’s environment and science reporter, I’ve written stories for more than five years
now about the voracious
emerald ash borer, an invasive insect
from Asia that’s literally chewing its way through Ohio’s ash trees.

Ash borer larvae kill trees by eating tunnels through the soft wood under the bark that supply
trees with water and nutrients. An adult tree is supposed to die within three to five years of
being attacked.

My tree, which was taller than my two-story house, looked perfectly fine last year. This year it
was completely dead.

When landscapers came last Tuesday to cut it down, there wasn’t a single section of this tree
that wasn’t riddled with the larvae tunnels shown in these photographs and the D-shaped exit holes
that adult borer beetles chew through the bark when they are ready to emerge.

I thought my tree would have more time. Dan Herms, an Ohio State University entomologist, said
that mature trees die more quickly in infested areas once the population of ash borers reach
“critical mass.”

Article source: http://www.dispatch.com/content/blogs/science-environment/2011/11/ash-tree-cut.html

UPCOMING EVENTS

1:00 PM – 2:30 PM – Free genealogical research assistance

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM – Westshore Tea Party Meeting

7:30 PM – Honoring Government Officials of Dover-Westlake

11:00 AM – 4:00 PM – Caregiver Expo 2011

1:00 PM – 2:30 PM – Meaning-Centered Group for Those with Advanced Cancer

8:00 PM – Blue Water Chamber Orchestra Concert

9:00 AM – 3:30 PM – 3rd Annual St. Bernadette Artisan Affair

9:30 AM – 4:00 PM – Christmas Carousel Craft Fair

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM – Phil Cousineau and the Oîkos Jazz Ensemble

7:30 PM – 9:00 PM – The All People Band

11:00 AM – 1:00 PM – Holiday Earth Fair

3:00 PM – Blue Water Chamber Orchestra Concert

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM – Time Management: Time IS on Your Side

6:30 PM – 8:30 PM – General Meeting of Northeast Ohio PC Club (NEOPC)

7:30 PM – Bay Village Community Band Concert – A Salute to Our Veterans

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM – Veteran’s Day Assembly at Bassett Elementary School

10:30 AM – Veterans Day Ceremony

3:00 PM – Veterans Day Celebration

6:00 PM – Flag Retirement Ceremony

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM – BAYarts Gallery Opening

9:30 PM – 12:00 PM – Anchoring the Aquarian Age Celebration Ceremony

9:30 AM – 3:30 PM – Basket of Treasures Craft Show

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM – How Old is Your Family?

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Gold Silver Buying Event Fundraiser

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM – Westlake Garden Club Meeting

7:00 PM – 8:45 PM – Metroparks songwriter and storyteller Foster Brown to sing and speak at Westlake Porter Public Library

12:00 PM – 4:00 PM – Blood Drive

7:00 PM – 11:00 PM – 24th Annual Bay Village PTA Council Scholarship Auction

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM – Boy Scout Troop 235 Spaghetti Dinner

Article source: http://www.westlakebayvillageobserver.com/read/2011/11/01/craft-fair-comes-home-to-nature-center-nov-5

That paper, “Coping With Chaos: How Disordered Contexts Promote Stereotypying and Discrimination,” claimed that people were more likely to be prejudicial toward others when in the presence of litter, a broken sidewalk, an abandoned bicycle, etc.

The problem is, there may not have been any experiment upon which this conclusion was based. Stapel apparently invented his raw data and then handed it to his graduate students to intepret. Read the story at Science Insider:

“The panel reported that he would discuss in detail experimental designs, including drafting questionnaires, and would then claim to conduct the experiments at high schools and universities with which he had special arrangements. The experiments, however, never took place, the universities concluded. Stapel made up the data sets, which he then gave the student or collaborator for analysis, investigators allege. In other instances, the report says, he told colleagues that he had an old data set lying around that he hadn’t yet had a chance to analyze. When Stapel did conduct actual experiments, the committee found evidence that he manipulated the results.

“Many of Stapel’s students graduated without having ever run an experiment, the report says. Stapel told them that their time was better spent analyzing data and writing. The commission writes that Stapel was ’lord of the data’ in his collaborations. It says colleagues or students who asked to see raw data were given excuses or even threatened and insulted.”

It’s not known yet if the Science paper in April was one of the ones with fabricated data, but Science spokeswoman Kathy Wren said this afternoon, “It seems highly likely that this Science paper is involved.” She said the Dutch investigators alerted the journal in September that the April paper might be tainted.

The journal’s editor-in-chief, Bruce Alberts, issued a brief statement today, called an “Editorial Expression of Concern,” in which he noted the findings released Monday by the Dutch investigators. He said the report “indicates that the extent of the fraud by Stapel is substantial.”

His students were victims, too — and ultimately realized that they were being taken for a ride. According to Science Insider, 14 of 21 of the theses published by Stapel’s students were affected by the tainted data.

Should the journal Science have known that this was a bogus paper? There’s a peer review process, but it’s one that isn’t designed to detect outright, bald-faced fraud.

Wren said today, “Science is not an investigative body, and so if a scientist is intentionally trying to deceive, the peer review system is not really set up to investigate that sort of thing.”

[Good report here by Ewen Callaway of Nature, republished by Scientific American’s website. Describes Stapel as a wunderkind. The investigative report has a statement from Stapel: “I have made mistakes, but I was and am honestly concerned with the field of social psychology. I therefore regret the pain that I have caused others.”]

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/diederik-stapel-the-lying-dutchman/2011/11/01/gIQA86XOdM_blog.html

South Florida Water Management District via AP

Workers show a nearly 16-foot Burmese python that was killed recently in Everglades National Park. Scientists are studying how pythons’ hearts grow during digestion, then contract to normal size. This python had eaten a deer.

By 

New York Times News Service

Tuesday November 1, 2011 6:36 AM

BOULDER, Colo. — Pythons are known for
their enormous appetites. In a single meal they can devour animals at least as big as they are —
deer, alligators, pigs, household pets.

Equally remarkable is what happens inside the python as it digests its prey. Within a day, its
internal organs can double in size. Metabolic rate and production of insulin and lipids soar.

Then, like an accordion, the python’s organs return to normal size in just a few days.
Metabolism slows. Then the snake can fast for months, even a year, without losing muscle mass or
showing any ill effects.

How this process happens so rapidly is a biological mystery with important implications for
human health, particularly when it comes to heart failure. Now, scientists at the University of
Colorado are reporting that they have partly solved it.

In a paper in the current issue of
Science, they report that a gorging python expands its heart by enlarging existing cells —
a process called hypertrophy — and not by creating new ones. (It is not known whether snakes get
heart disease.)

A second finding is that a specific combination of three fatty acids produces enlargement of a
python’s heart, intestines, liver and kidneys. Injections of the combination produce similar growth
in the heart of a mouse.

Understanding such exaggerated variations, the researchers say, could help them develop novel
ways to delay, prevent, treat or even reverse various hereditary and acquired human diseases.

Substances from other reptiles have been used to develop drugs; for example, the diabetes drug
Byetta is derived from a hormone found in Gila monster saliva. And the day may come when doctors
literally prescribe snake oil for heart disease.

Combating “heart failure is the goal” of the python research, said Leslie A. Leinwand, a Howard
Hughes Medical Institute professor at Colorado and a senior member of the research team. She added
that the findings also might lead to treatments to prevent sudden death in young athletes, as well
as for ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

A gorging python produces an opaque milky plasma composed of fatty acids and other lipids in
amounts that would damage a human heart, Leinwand said. Trigylcerides, the main components of
natural fats and oils, zoomed to 50 times the fasting rate.

Leinwand had been fascinated by a journal article by Stephen M. Secor and Jared Diamond urging
other scientists to explore extremes of lifestyles among wild animals. The python research in
Boulder began in 2005, when Cecilia A. Riquelme, who had earned a doctorate in cell biology in her
native Chile, sought a fellowship in Leinwand’s laboratory.

An expert in the molecular workings of the heart, Leinwand knew that little such research had
been done on pythons. There are structural differences — a python heart has three chambers, a human
heart four. Yet she thought experiments in comparative biology might advance human-heart
research.

Adult pythons can grow as long as 25 feet and as thick as telephone poles, far too large for her
laboratory. So she bought a supply of 5-footers and asked Riquelme, “How would you feel about
working with pythons?”

Pythons are not venomous; still, Riquelme feared being bitten. But the challenge was too
tempting to pass up, and after a harmless bite she overcame her fear.

She started by observing how the python’s organs grew while the intact prey was in the stomach.
The organs regressed in size over about two weeks.

Using chemical stains they developed to measure cell size and the number of nuclei, the
investigators determined that the heart expansion was from hypertrophy, not formation of new
cells.

Hypertrophy of the human heart occurs in two types. One, from ailments like high blood pressure
and heart attacks, is a leading predictor of death. The second type is beneficial and occurs from
exercise in conditioned athletes.

The Colorado scientists found that the enlargement of a python’s heart is analogous to the
growth seen in the heart of a human athlete. Among their goals is to better understand how plasma
components instruct individual cells to develop into the beneficial ones among athletes or bad ones
in disease.

The findings leave a number of mysteries still open. What causes the organs to shrink to their
fasting size? How would such findings apply to the death of human cells? And will repeated
injections of the fatty acid combination safely lead to sustained increase in organ size?

Article source: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2011/11/01/python-digestion-a-feast-for-scientists-to-explore.html

• Ninth-grade science teacher now under investigation
• Pupils in Dave McMillen’s class found hidden camera
• Police looking at camera and computers at his home
• He has resigned from school in Selah, Washington

By
Paul Thompson

Last updated at 5:44 PM on 31st October 2011

A ninth-grade science teacher is being investigated after pupils in his class found a mini camera hidden under a female student’s desk.

Police are examining the camera and computers at the home of Dave McMillen after the shocking discovery in his class at a junior high school.

Police believe the 51-year-old used the camera to take ‘upskirt’ photos and have launched an investigation into alleged voyeurism.

Science teacher: Police are examining the camera and computers at the home of Dave McMillen after the shocking discovery in his class at a junior high school

McMillen resigned from his job at Selah Junior High School in Selah, Washington, after police launched the investigation.

School officials have given no reason for the teacher’s resignation.

McMillen was put on administrative leave earlier this month after students in his ninth grade class reported the hidden camera.

Police said the miniature device was no more than two inches wide. It was discovered by accident when a student knocked it loose.

Chief Stacy Dwarshuis said they are awaiting the results of an analysis of the camera’s content.

He also confirmed that computers had been seized from McMillen’s home.

Chief Dwarshuis said McMillen had taken the right option by resigning while the investigation continues.

‘I’m glad that this gentleman has decided to sever his contract or his contact with the school district. I don’t think it precludes him from going someplace else, unless the state steps in and drops his certification’

Selah police chief Stacy Dwarshuis

‘I’m glad that this gentleman has decided to sever his contract or his contact with the school district,’ he said.

‘I don’t think it precludes him from going someplace else, unless the state steps in and drops his certification.’

School chiefs sent out an email to parents explaining McMillen had left the school’s staff.

The email said: ‘At their meeting last night the Selah School Board approved a settlement agreement with ninth grade science teacher Dave McMillen that provides for his termination of employment by the school district.

‘A temporary substitute teacher has been in that classroom for the past two weeks. Beginning Monday, October 31 a science endorsed teacher will begin teaching the class for the remainder of the school year. ‘

No charges have yet been filed against McMillen.

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