Every time a Burmese python swallows a meal, something remarkable happens inside its body. Its heart expands by a quarter.

Scientists have discovered a compound in python blood that reduces appetite and could lead to safer, more effective weight-loss drugs.

Pythons don't nibble. They chomp, squeeze, and swallow their prey whole in a meal that can approach 100% of their body weight. But even as they slither stealthily around the forest, months or even a ...