SIR – I spent nearly 30 years at the BBC, mainly in an editorial role in the radio newsroom – which included the night we joined the Common Market – later on Today, Radio 1, Radio 4 and in news management.
collaboration.
Bryan Fry s heart was pounding as he stepped back from the snake enclosure and examined the bite marks on his hand. He had just been bitten by a death adder, one of Australia’s most venomous snakes. Its neurotoxin-laced bite could cause vomiting, paralysis and as the name suggests death.
Fry, at the time a graduate student, had kept snakes for years. Oddly, the neurotoxins weren’t his biggest worry; the nearby hospital would have the antivenom he needed, and, although data is limited, people who receive treatment generally survive. Anaphylactic shock, on the other hand, might kill him within minutes.