When Aesop
moralized at the end of his fable about the lion
and the mouse that we often need help from someone
smaller, he could well have been talking about
the Etruscan shrew, which has been extensively
studied by biologist Roger Fons of France’s
national center for scientific research (CNRS).
The physiological characteristics of this, the
smallest mammal in the world, sound rather like
a challenge to the laws of nature, and the little
animal remains something of a scientific enigma.
This miniature shrew (it weighs from 1.5g to 2g),
known in some languages as a “spider-mouse” *
is able to slow its heart rate from 1,000 to 100
beats a minute by lowering its body temperature
by 15°C. In so doing, the tiny creature slows
the aging process by reducing its energy consumption
enormously! Just think, if we humans, with our
comparable biological complexity, could develop
the same control of our body temperature, perhaps
we could live forever…
* So named because its
bite is reputed to be venomous and was believed
to be as painful as that of a spider. Cf. L’étonnante
histoire des noms des mammifères, de la
musaraigne étrusque à la baleine
bleue, by Henriette Walter and our colleague Pierre
Avenas, Vice President Chemicals Research and Development,
Atofina, Chemicals branch of Total. Publisher:
Robert Laffont, Paris. |
