内容摘要：For secure and confidential communications, use the free Signal app

For secure and confidential communications, use the free Signal app

Hoping to protect himself from snake bites — and out of what he calls “simple curiosity” — he began injecting himself with small doses of snake venom and then slowly increased the amount to try to build up tolerance. He would then let snakes bite him.“At first, it was very scary,” Friede said. “But the more you do it, the better you get at it, the more calm you become with it.”

In this photo provided by Centivax, Tim Friede, center, stands in a lab in South San Francisco, Calif., in 2023, that is using his blood to prepare an antivenom to the bites of various snakes. (Centivax via AP)In this photo provided by Centivax, Tim Friede, center, stands in a lab in South San Francisco, Calif., in 2023, that is using his blood to prepare an antivenom to the bites of various snakes. (Centivax via AP)While no doctor or emergency medical technician — or anyone, really — would ever suggest this is a remotely good idea, experts say his method tracks how the body works. When the immune system is exposed to the toxins in snake venom, it develops antibodies that can neutralize the poison. If it’s a small amount of venom the body can react before it’s overwhelmed. And if it’s venom the body has seen before, it can react more quickly and handle larger exposures.

Friede has withstood snakebites and injections for nearly two decades and still has a refrigerator full of venom. In videos posted to his YouTube channel, he shows off swollen fang marks on his arms from black mamba, taipan and water cobra bites.“I wanted to push the limits as close to death as possible to where I’m just basically teetering right there and then back off of it,” he said.

But Friede also wanted to help. He emailed every scientist he could find, asking them to study the tolerance he’d built up.

And there is a need: Around 110,000 people die from snakebite every year, according to the World Health Organization. And making antivenom is expensive and difficult. It is often created by injecting large mammals like horses with venom and collecting the antibodies they produce. These antivenoms are usually only effective against specific snake species, and can sometimes produce bad reactions due to their nonhuman origins.UCLA was down to its last out against South Carolina in Game 2 before winning, then took Game 3. The Bruins could add to their record 12 World Series titles.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis Police Chiefvividly remembers receiving a call around midnight from a community activist. The caller told him to watch a video spreading on social media of a white officer pinning a Black man to the ground, despite his fading pleas of “I can’t breathe.”

And Arradondo was the city’s first Black police chief.“It was absolutely gut-wrenching,” Arradondo, 58, recalled in an interview ahead of the fifth anniversary of