Comments on: One slip and you're dead!

One slip and you're dead!

Irontom — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 05:48:37 -0800

One slip and you're dead!
Marine cone snails are among the most venomous animals in existence, some producing as many as 100 different toxins. Due to their unique properties, the toxins are in hot demand for neuroscience research. Most researchers obtain the toxins from dead specimens, but one upstate New York biochemist is trying to farm them. Milking time is dangerous...

By: tommasz

tommasz — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 06:05:17 -0800

Not all of us in upstate NY are this crazy.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 06:08:57 -0800

Amazing. A freakin' SNAIL, of all things. The article says that there are at least 30 cases of humans being killed by these things. Can you imagine? Geez...death by snail. Ugh.

By: spazzm

spazzm — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 06:52:32 -0800

It's coming right for us!

By: shoepal

shoepal — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 06:54:40 -0800

[this is freaky] Awesome link, Irontom.

By: stonerose

stonerose — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 07:24:37 -0800

"For now, sex in the cone snail Hilton remains the stuff of Bingham's dreams." Heh. Lethal nocturnal emissions...

By: riffola

riffola — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 07:29:56 -0800

Cool! I used to go to Clarkson, and if you think that's crazy, let me tell you Wes Craven used to teach there, and the Nightmare On Elm Street & People Under The Stairs stories are based on frat stories at Clarkson. In fact there is an Elm Street in Potsdam, and Snell Hall is located there, along with a bunch of frats.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 07:41:42 -0800

Fascinating. More on cone shells here, including a short film and/or animated .gif of envenomation.

By: widdershins

widdershins — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 08:53:47 -0800

Great link - thx!

By: weston

weston — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 09:23:22 -0800

"Caution - venomous snails" sounds like a warning straight out of Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy.

By: skoosh

skoosh — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 10:47:11 -0800

My mom works at Clarkson, as a librarian. Such a sad little library for anything but engineering texts. But that's not her fault. Yeah, it's cool to see Clarkson getting some press. North Country represent!

By: wsg

wsg — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 11:29:30 -0800

A friend of mine is looking into crawfish farming. I sent him the link. heh-heh

By: apathy0o0

apathy0o0 — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 13:34:08 -0800

I recently read this collection of stories, the second one of which is about a man on an island and his interaction with the cone snails. It's good stuff.

By: verstegan

verstegan — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 13:47:18 -0800

Ah, death by snail! The snail made a splash as it entered the sea. To drown or to be eaten alive? the professor wondered. He was waist-deep when he stumbled, waist-deep but head under when the snail crashed down upon him, and he realized as the thousands of pairs of teeth began to gnaw at his back, that his fate was both to drown and to be chewed to death. (Patricia Highsmith, The Quest for Blank Claveringi)