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Scientists have used the latest imaging techniques to look inside a python that had just swallowed a rat whole. The resulting footage is part of a project using hi-tech scanning methods to explore animals' anatomy. It took 132 hours for snake to fully digest the rat, the scientists said. Their work has revealed other strange insights into python digestion. They presented the study at the Society for Experimental Biology's annual meeting in Prague, Czech Republic. The researchers carried out a computer tomography or CT scan of an anaesthetised 5kg Burmese python one hour after it had devoured the rat whole. They also used a technique called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the creature's internal organs. By using contrast agents, the scientists were able to highlight specific organs and make them appear in different colours.
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Scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) say they have moved a step closer to their aim of unlocking the mysteries of the Universe. The world's highest-energy particle accelerator has produced a record-breaking particle collision rate - about double the previous rate. The collider is now generating around 10,000 particle collisions per second, according to physicist Andrei Golutvin. The LHC is housed in a 27km circular tunnel under the French-Swiss border. The vast machine is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), based near Geneva in Switzerland. Physicists say this marks the start of turning the LHC into the world's most powerful particle collider. "It's clear that the LHC is the new boy in town, but in two years running we're going to put Fermilab out of business," operation group leader Mike Lamont told BBC News.
