The Cure Made from the Poison

At the Australian Reptile Park north of Sydney, trained handlers pin down eastern brown snakes, taipans, and death adders to milk venom from their fangs. The extracted poison is shipped to laboratories where technicians inject tiny, controlled doses into horses. Over months, the horses develop antibodies. Those antibodies are harvested, purified, and bottled as antivenom — the only thing that can save a snakebite victim racing against the clock in a rural emergency room.…