Cool Arctic squirrels may hold key to Alzheimer’s cure

The processes in their brains during hibernation are exciting scientists

This month, Arctic ground squirrels emerge in Alaska after eight months' hibernation. It hasn't been easy: during hibernation, their body temperature can drop as low as -2.9C, a record for mammals, and stay there for two to three weeks before they undergo a bout of shivering to warm up. Scientists are scrutinising this mechanism to see how temperature management can help humans to recover from cardiac arrests and strokes.

"We and others have identified at least one mechanism that the [squirrel] brain uses to control this onset of hibernation," says Professor Kelly Drew, who studies hibernation biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "That mechanism has potential to guide development of drugs that uses the same mechanism to cool people."