For thousands of years, snakes have been used in art, literature, religious texts and more.
From Adam and Eve's temptation in the Garden of Eden to Medusa with her hair of snakes that turned anyone who looked at her into stone, it might not be a shocker that these slithering creatures tend to frighten many who come across them.
But on "The Florida Roundup," author Stephen Hall of the book "Slither: How Nature's Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World," argues that although humans may be wired to spot snakes very quickly, the reaction can spark emotions other than terror.
"But the other piece of it is it doesn't necessarily mean that we're wired to be afraid of them, although it could result in fear," the longtime science journalist said. "But that instantaneous detection can be channeled either toward fear or in the argument that I make in the book, toward wonder and amazement and admiration."
Cultural significance of snakes
The reptiles have taken a big space in human imagination, even when looking at literature and film.
For example, in the popular Indiana Jones movie franchise, the main character, known for daring exploits, had one phobia: snakes.
And in the Harry Potter series, the villain Voldemort was known for his snake-like features and loyal snake companion Nagini.
But ophidians are also found in a spectrum of symbols with positive meanings — like protection or health.
Hall said the significance is a "really interesting progression" that goes back to ancient Egypt, where snakes played an important role in culture. For example, a raised, tongue-flicking cobra is prominent in the headdresses of pharaohs.
"Because that was believed to spit fire at any enemies of the pharaoh, and so it was a species, an animal of protection," Hall said.
He added that there was also an "interesting healing cult" that grew up around a Greek mythical figure known as Asclepius, the god of medicine.
"According to some mythological tales, Asclepius learned the secret of healing and also restoring life to dead people from a snake, either by being whispered in his ear or he watched a snake treat another snake that had died with some herbs, and consequently, Asclepius' believed skill — or perceived skill — was attributed to the snake," Hall said.
Asclepius is usually depicted with a staff coiled by a snake and is a symbol of medicine or healing (not to be confused with the caduceus, a winged mace with two snakes carried by the messenger god Hermes).
Florida's connection with Burmese Pythons
Although Hall's book touches on snake depictions, the writer also spent time mucking around the Everglades in an effort to find what's arguably considered one of the state's most hated reptiles: the invasive Burmese python.
"We did not actually see or encounter any pythons," Hall told "The Florida Roundup" host Tom Hudson about that trek through the Everglades. "But in retrospect, it turned out, in my opinion, to be kind of a representative experience in a sense of not finding them because they are so hard to find."
In the United States, snakes as large as Burmese pythons are not typically seen.
The Sunshine State has almost four dozen species of snakes native to Florida, but these humongous reptiles aren't one of them. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Burmese pythons are considered an invasive species due to their devastating impacts on native wildlife populations.
Almost every animal in the Everglades is potential prey for these snakes.
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Hall said government statistics from between the 1970s and about 2011 show nearly 300,000 pythons were imported into the country — with many going through Florida.
"The amazing part of the story is this is not the natural habitat of these animals, and yet they are able to adapt and make a home for themselves and very successfully survive," Hall said. "They proliferate, they spread, and then you have a massive problem on your hands."
In terms of Florida's role in the world of snakes, Hall said, the state is a hospitable environment because of its climate, wilderness and aqueous environment. However, there has been habitat destruction and a decrease in native snakes. Hall told Hudson that this isn't good from an ecological perspective.
"Snakes are merely one of myriad partners in an ecological web, and so whenever you start to take away pieces of a web, this whole structure begins to become a bit more fragile and a bit more untenable," Hall said.
What pythons may teach us about eating
Although Burmese pythons might be considered one of the state's most reviled reptiles, they also have the potential to help with medical research.
The species can adapt to changing environmental circumstances rapidly and thrive while eating only one to three times a year.
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"The sort of yardstick is that a python eating one of these huge meals is equivalent to a 140-pound human eating a 220-pound cheeseburger or something like that in one gulp," Hall explained.
Scientists studying this ability discovered the snakes are igniting about 2,000 genes within hours, and in some cases minutes, of ingesting a meal, Hall said.
"These genes are kicking into action for all sorts of reasons, but one of which is, it actually enlarges the organs in the snake, so the heart grows bigger, the intestine grows bigger, kidneys grow larger, liver grows larger," Hall added.
This doesn't happen in humans except for medical conditions like an enlarged heart. The snake does this to be able to process all the food, and then it has the ability to shed the growth added to its body.
"It's like a short-lived cancer that causes these organs to expand, and then at the end of it, there's some kind of genetic scalpel that goes in and calls away the size again so they're back to normal," he explained.
The potential application for this knowledge could be used in investigating diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other major health issues.
For example, in the growth phase, pythons are pumping out huge amounts of insulin but are still able to properly respond to it. Researchers have identified a series of pathways that seem to control the metabolism and regeneration of organs.
"There's typically these sort of stop signs in human metabolism, vertebrate metabolism. Nobody has seen what these snakes are doing, which is, they're kind of running through the stop signs without harm," he said.
Hall explained that it's not known how to interpret this ability, but there are "lots of clues to regeneration and maybe working around diabetes that might be helpful."
He said that most research on gut metabolism has been done on mice, and they lack the particular cell that makes this possible in snakes and also is present in humans — potentially meaning we've been overlooking the snake when it comes to health discoveries.
Overall, the goal of Hall's book is to reintroduce readers to snakes by bringing more insight into the creatures and encouraging people to be in awe instead of fearful.
And, as the book description reads, there must be something to the scaly reptiles that "have fired the imaginations of poets, prophets and painters across time and cultures."
