Nectar bats could have nature’s largest candy tooth. Every evening, the creatures scour the jungle for blossoming flowers with a purpose to eat as a lot as 150% of their physique weight in liquid sugar.
Such a feat would go away different mammals in shock or in a coma. However nectar bats push biology to the restrict — making them “great, majestic flying superheroes,” within the phrases of Jasmin Camacho, a postdoctoral researcher on the Stowers Institute for Medical Analysis who was not too long ago named a STAT Wunderkind. By studying how bats defend themselves from the poisonous results of excessive sugar consumption, Camacho is striving to search out new therapies for metabolic issues like diabetes and weight problems.
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