The Cure in the Venom

In a dusty laboratory at the Australian Reptile Park north of Sydney, keeper Billy Collett does something that looks like madness. Several times a week, he holds a taipan — one of the world's deadliest snakes — and presses its fangs against a glass vial, coaxing out drops of venom. That venom is then shipped to CSL Limited in Melbourne, where technicians inject tiny, controlled doses into horses.…