Snake-venom researcher Bryan Grieg Fry made his first discovery the hard way. During his PhD, he handled a snake whose venom was largely unknown. "As far as anyone knew, Stephen's banded snakes were not considered dangerous," Fry says. "I clearly proved this wrong as my body hit the ground seconds after the bite". Several thousand snakes and more than 20 bites later, Fry, now deputy director of the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne, has gone one better. He now says the vast majority of snakes on the planet are venomous, even some commonly kept as pets.
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