Scientists discover why snake embryos twist into spirals

Snake embryos begin life curled into a distinctive right-handed spiral, and scientists may finally know why. Their bodies grow faster than their guts, creating a tether that forces the lengthening embryo to buckle and twist inside the egg. Researchers reached the conclusion after studying more than 900 embryos and using CT scans to reveal the hidden anatomy behind the coils.

sciencedaily.com ·1h ago

We haven't written up this one. ScienceDaily has the full story — the link below goes straight to it.

Read the original at sciencedaily.com →

More in Science

Computer Security: Hot Review Summer, Cool Deployment Autumn

This summer has seen a plethora of different assessments of the Organization’s security posture and stance. While an external vulnerability scan of CERN’s Internet presence and a red-teaming…

1h ago ·home.cern

UPSC Key: ‘Talking’ cars, Himalayas’ hanging glacier threat, and Indus Waters Treaty

1h ago ·indianexpress.com

Staff withdrawal threatens wildlife disease surveillance on Macquarie Island

Australia's Macquarie Island lies deep in the Southern Ocean, about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) southeast of Tasmania. This World Heritage-listed sanctuary is a haven for species such as elephant and…

1h ago ·medicalxpress.com

A supermassive black hole erupted in X-rays, and its radio jets followed 300 days later

By combining roughly two decades of observations from NASA's Swift X-ray Telescope with radio monitoring, astronomers have caught a supermassive black hole at the heart of the Perseus Cluster suddenly…

1h ago ·phys.org

Kaikōura erosion monitoring holds answers for world's rock coastlines

Erosion rates on parts of the Kaikōura Peninsula more than doubled after the 2016 earthquake, showing major quakes can "rapidly alter" the way coastlines evolve, an Otago researcher says.

1h ago ·phys.org

Three discoveries that transformed how we understand nutrition

When we think about nutrition, we almost always picture the same key players: the mouth, stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas and perhaps the gut microbiota.

1h ago ·medicalxpress.com