Featured in U.S. News & World Report
"Eating Less May Hinder Immune System" April 3, 2008
Food Restriction Compromises Immune Memory in Deer Mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) by Reducing Spleen-Derived Antibody-Producing B Cell Numbers
Lynn B. Martin II, Kristen J. Navara, Michael T. Bailey, Chelsea R. Hutch, Nicole D. Powell, John F. Sheridan, and Randy J. Nelson
You may no longer need to remember whether it's "starve a cold, feed a fever" or vice versa. New research suggests you should just eat. A study of deer mice has found that reducing the amount of food the mice ate impaired their immune system. The findings are published in the May/June issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

Featured in Science
"How to Give a Gator Heartburn" February 6, 2008
The Right-to-Left Shunt of Crocodilians Serves Digestion

C. G. Farmer, T. J. Uriona, D. B. Olsen, M. Steenblik, and K. Sanders
After they recovered, the 2-kilogram alligators feasted on chopped steak, and the researchers measured their gastric acid secretion. As the team reports in the March/April issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, the animals with intact shunting abilities produced more stomach acid than did the altered reptiles, especially when it was warm. In fact, they produced 10 times more than the greatest amount recorded in any animal, apparently using the CO2-rich blood to supply stomach glands that use CO2 to make gastric acid. The "acid secretion seemed ludicrous it was so high," Farmer says. All that stomach acid should be good for digesting large, bony meals. Indeed, x-rays showed that shunting gators with more acidic tummies finished digesting a bony ox tail days ahead of their nonshunting counterparts. Because alligators rely on external heat to warm their bodies, they can't always maintain the ideal temperature for digestion--so processing huge meals as quickly as possible is "like making hay while the sun shines," Farmer says.