Reptile & Amphibian Forums

GLOBE AND MAIL (Toronto, Ontario) 15 September 03 Snakes in space
Halifax (CP): A space scientist wants students to help him round up snakes for an experiment to find out what the limbless reptiles do in the absence of gravity.
"This is going to be a fun project," said Richard Wassersug, an anatomy and neurobiology professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Mr. Wassersug has already sent several experiments into space on NASA's shuttles, but this unique project will involve a plane that belongs to the National Research Council.
The aircraft, called a Falcon, will fly in a parabolic arc producing weightlessness while the snakes are onboard.
"They get 20 or 30 seconds of weightlessness for every arc," he explained.
The Tom Hanks movie Apollo 13 used parabolic flights to film zero-gravity scenes, said Nicole Buckley, a scientist with the Canadian Space Agency.
"It's the vomit comet," Ms. Buckley said.
Mr. Wassersug has already examined what some snakes do when the earth's pull disappears.
"Compared to all the other animals I've looked at, they've had the weirdest reaction," he said.
"So what I've suggested to the students . . . is that we look at a variety of other snake-like animals."
When he describes snake behaviour in zero-gravity as weird, Mr. Wassersug isn't kidding.
In previous experiments, one type of snake went, well, snaky as it floated in free fall.
"Its head went by a loop of its body and it attacked itself," he said.
Mr. Wassersug has a simple theory to explain this behaviour.
On parabolic flights, people often don't know where their own limbs are because they're used to the weight of gravity pulling on the joints telling them what way is down.
"One can easily imagine how a snake might, on losing the pressure of the ground, not recognize part of its own body as itself," he said.
"That's a hypothesis and we want to test it with a bunch more animals."
As many as six students will help round up snakes from various sources and set up video cameras to capture their reactions to zero-gravity.
Ms. Buckley said the experiment will undergo an animal review to ensure placing the snakes in zero-gravity isn't cruel.
"It's not the greatest thing that's happened to the snake, but it's certainly by no stretch of the imagination the worst thing," she said.
Snakes in space

I hope the reveiw board rejects this. It's a waste of money, pointless, and cruel. What purpose would it serve other than curiosity? Can you imagine the terror those snakes must experience - there's nothing familiar around them, and then to not even have gravity?

Katrina

"This is going to be a fun project," said Richard Wassersug

Okay, so he enjoys tourturing animals....I believe that's a felony here.

Mr. Wassersug has already examined what some snakes do when the earth's pull disappears.
"Compared to all the other animals I've looked at, they've had the weirdest reaction," he said.

In other words....they are terrorfied.

"So what I've suggested to the students . . . is that we look at a variety of other snake-like animals."

So, he's going to take it overboard...he can make a whole new series of lame horror flicks based on the revenge of these poor animals because tourture we put them through for no good reason.

"Its head went by a loop of its body and it attacked itself," he said.

And this heartless jerk doesn't see a problem with this behavior?

"That's a hypothesis and we want to test it with a bunch more animals."

Agian, he obviously enjoys terrorizing animals.

As many as six students will help round up snakes from various sources

Okay so they are going to further deplete numbers in the wild.

Ms. Buckley said the experiment will undergo an animal review to ensure placing the snakes in zero-gravity isn't cruel.

They're joking right....I mean do they really have to ask?

"It's not the greatest thing that's happened to the snake, but it's certainly by no stretch of the imagination the worst thing," she said.

The snake probably would disagree with this statement.
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~redmom~
My Email
Herps:
1.0 Normal corn snake "Ed"

Others:
1.0 Blue Male Betta fish "'Beta' test"
0.1 White/Lemon/beige splotched and spotted hound mix "Angel"

Human pets:
2.0 Children "Matthew" 7 yrs, "Duncan" > 1 yr
1.0 Hubby "Roger"

I contacted Dr. Wassersug via email after reading that article and speaking w/a herpetologist/biologist friend of mine. I asked him what was the point of this research. He was kind enough to ask for my number and called me to explain the research and the history behind it.

First, he IS a herpetologist himself and also loves reptiles. He explained the housing that the snakes were in and that they are cushioned so that the snake isn't harmed when gravity kicks back in.

This research is centered around what he described as "model organisms". For anyone, such as myself, that aren't familiar with that term it denotes an organism that represents others for science. NASA apparently, because they felt they didn't need to spend the money on seperate housing for mice (which is a FOURTUNE!) so their conclusions of mice in space is not correct. Dr. Wassersug's theroy revolves around that and trying to find out what exactly would denote a "model" organism. What he has found out thus far (and this goes back like 10 years that this has been going on) that, while testing a ground snake, as said in the report that it turned on itself. However a caecilian which lives underground went limp, it didn't feel the need to right itself.

So Dr. Wassensug's theroy, which the reporter did not state, is that animals above ground require gravity to have a sense of themselves and animals underground, do not, because they have no need to "right" themselves. Anyhow, Dr. Wassensug assured me that he is taking proper precautions to ensure the safety of the herps in his research and that he follows up numerous times with vet's to ensure that there is no long term damage as well.

And as for the snake that struck at itself, it didn't strike to bite. As alot of know, not all snakes bite when feeling threatened but rather they strike as in to "punch" the treat to frighten it. That is what the snake did, it didn't bite itself.

Anyhow, I am fairly satisfied with this. He explained it very well and there is purpose to it. He is not killing these animals and he is sure that his research doesn't stress them to the point of having long term problems.
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~redmom~
My Email
Herps:
1.0 Normal corn snake "Ed"

Others:
1.0 Blue Betta fish "'Beta' test"
0.1 White/Lemon/beige splotched and spotted hound mix "Angel"

Human pets:
2.0 Children "Matthew" 7 yrs, "Duncan" > 1 yr
1.0 Hubby "Roger"

"Life will find a way." Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) Jurrasic Park