PYTHONS, boas and pit vipers may use a night-vision protein to spot their
warm-blooded prey in total darkness, according to researchers in Ohio.
At this week鈥檚 meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim,
California, Morley Stone and his colleagues at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
reported finding a protein in the cup-shaped sensory organs lining the jaws of
ball pythons. They believe the protein may allow the snakes to detect infrared
radiation. Boas have the same organs, while pit vipers have similar structures
below their eyes.
鈥淥nce we find the gene that encodes that protein,鈥� says Stone, 鈥渙ur plans are
to test the protein directly in an in vitro setting to see if it absorbs far
infrared light.鈥�
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