Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Investigators are fanning out
in search of the world’s most venomous animals
and sampling their deadly wares in a surprising quest.
Not just to find out how they kill us
but how they can save us too.
Toxins are actually proteins
just like the proteins in our bodies.
Which tell all of our cells where to go
what to do, and when.
But the toxins in venom
are mutated and tell key cells to do all the wrong things.
The lovely and lethal cone snail does it by firing harpoons
full of toxins so powerful
that homeland security has studied their potential as bio weapons.
First the snail sends out its cipher to smell for a victim.
Usually a fish.
Then it unfurls something called a proboscis
Inside are the venom laden barbs.
A whole quiver of them.
One is loaded and shot at the target.
The target is immobilized and eaten.
That is how one of the slowest creatures on earth
can kill one of the quickest.
But their toxins aren’t just deadly
they're valuable.
The roster of deadly lifesavers is growing day by day.
Scorpions are now showing promise treating epilepsy
and brain cancer.
Spider venom in controlling heart arrhythmias
Komodo dragons in lowering blood pressure
and vipers in the battle of stroke, diabetes, kidney disease and heart failure.