Snake date

At the Butterfly and Insect World, Edinburgh, Scotland, it was the Burmese Python (top left & bottom) that had me mesmerized the moment I walked into the reptile room. I stood gaping at the sheer size and beauty of it - the 14ft long giant was adorned with the most gorgeous of skins. Utterly terrified, I jumped everytime it moved! But as it slithered down the rocks to the glass partition, my fears vanished. Spell-bound, I squatted down and put my face right next to it in a beautiful shared moment. Shortly afterwards, out came Monty the Royal Python (top centre) with which we got to hold and play with...them mascular twitches..aarrgh! At the top right's a pair of anacondas chilling out in the pool.

Some more interesting pics: poisonous arrow frogs, glowing scorpions, pupa transforming into a butterfly, tarantula, Mexican redknee tarantula, etc..Enjoy!

Bonobo

One wrong letter

Tay-Sachs disease - an inherited rare condition that results from a recessive allele; a mutation on chromosome 15 of HEXA gene that proves fatal.

Watching the program Cracking The Code of Life, I was particularly touched by the clip One Wrong Letter. The mutation, in the case of Hayden, was caused by a single letter alteration in his DNA. The structure of a protein molecule was disrupted, affecting the breakdown of gangliosites in his nerve cells. Fatty acids accumulated in his brain as a result, swelling and crushing his brain cells, eventually causing blindness, seizures and death. More..

I can't bear to watch the kid suffer. Imagine how tormented the parents must feel; being responsible for their child's suffering yet not being able to do anything about it. But, from a different point of view, I find it quite fascinating that the consequences of a single letter, in a chain constituting more than 3 billion letters, could account for such grave and devastating effects. The documentary's a must-see!

Click for the clip, One Wrong Letter.

Shaking off the shackles

Exams over. Assignments handed in. And phew! the immediate pressure's gone. But gee, that was two weeks of sleep-deprived stress topped with too much taurine, too much cheddar minis and way too much caffeine. In an ideal world I'd be thinking three words right now: workout-meal-shower, but crap you caught me with only one: hibernation.

Before that, a coupla pics from me bro

Survivor

Wax marmosets

Trippy

Luv u, Iko

Enjoy!