YOU MEAN “SNAKE OIL” MIGHT ACTUALLY TURN OUT TO BE GOOD MEDICINE? Snakes’ Feat May Inspire Heart Drugs. “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.”