Deep Sleep in the Arctic

Saving energy is crucial to the survival of animals living in the cold regions of the world. A small marmot-like rodent from the Arctic is world champion when it comes to energy saving. According to YAN Jun from the CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai, this makes the Arctic ground squirrel extremely suitable for studying the changes that occur at the molecular level during rodent hibernation. Based on this, the scientist and his colleagues aim to discover exactly how the animals can attain such dramatic reductions in their metabolic activity.