With COVID-19 being a global pandemic, this article addresses five possible misconceptions folks may have about this outbreak, its potential, and ways to remain safe.
Celebrate the Year of the Horse with these 10 tasty shot/drink recipes.
What should you do when you’re bitten a snake? Kill/capture the snake? Suck out the venom? Worry about infection? Go to the hospital? This article presents the best advice for dealing with snakebites.
How did a python kill 2 brothers in Canada? By strangling them? By trying to eat them? Did the ceiling collapse on them? Join the investigation into what really happened and why a snake might do it.
What is a snake? Which snake is the most venomous or the longest? How can I identify venomous snakes in the US? I answer these frequently asked questions and more.
How can the universe come from nothing? What is in empty space? At the subatomic level, quantum fluctuations occur everywhere, resulting in the spontaneous formation of a particle-antiparticle pair of energetic particles. These particles can randomly undergo a process of inflation, which expands...
Have you ever discovered a snake in the wilds of Indiana and wanted to be able to identify it? Use this dichotomous key, which includes the most common physical characteristics of adult snakes.
What snakes live in Indiana? Are any of them venomous and/or dangerous? There are nearly 40 different species and subspecies of snakes that can be found in the Hoosier state. Although three out of the four front-fanged venomous snakes are endangered (Timber Rattlesnake, Cottonmouth, Eastern...
Did we need a god or creator in order for life to originate on Earth or could life have spontaneously formed from a primordial soup billions of years ago? Abiogenesis and Panspermia describe the two theories of how life began on Earth. There are a handful of places in our solar system that...
Why bother studying snake venom? Why should I care unless I get bitten by a venomous snake? Snake venom has been used for things other than just antivenom production (e.g. CroFab), such as scientific research and pharmaceutical applications. When you consider all the possible individual venom...
Learn about the differences between front- and rear-fanged snakes, including the morphology and efficiency of their venom delivery systems.
What does it mean for a snake to be front-fanged or rear-fanged? This not only refers to the placement of the fangs, themselves, but a number of other factors, including dentition. Front-fanged snakes have less teeth in fewer places than rear-fanged snakes due to their lack of a need to hold on...
What are snake fangs? How do they differ from the other teeth in the snake's mouth? Are there different kinds of snake fangs? Fangs are structures that have evolved to serve as an effective means of introducing venom into prey. Fangs, like "normal" snake teeth, are replaced on a regular basis. ...
Different snakes may contain different types of venom compounds, with small-scale shifts in venom composition possible within an individual snake due to age, diet, environment/captivity, and season.
What snakes are venomous? Which are poisonous? Is there a difference? Yes, there is! While there are ~1,300 venomous species of snakes in the world, there are only around 4 species that are poisonous.