Scientists discover a powerful new antivenom hidden in rattlesnake blood - Science Daily

LondonA 15-month-old boy from Sarnia, Ont., is recovering at home after being bitten by an eastern massasauga rattlesnake on the Thanksgiving long weekend while visiting a family cottage on the Bruce Peninsula. The bite required treatment at two hospitals and 18 doses of antivenom. Wells Gladwish, 15 months, was treated at 2 hospitals after being bitten by an eastern massasauga rattlesnakeTravis Dolynny · CBC News · Posted: Oct 16, 2026 3:00 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. Wells Gladwish, 15 months, was bitten by an eastern massasauga rattlesnake on the Bruce Peninsula. (Matt Huggett)A 15-month-old boy from Sarnia, Ont., is recovering at home after being bitten by a rattlesnake at a family cottage on the Thanksgiving long weekend, requiring treatment at two hospitals and 18 doses of antivenom. Wells Gladwish was bitten on the thumb around 12:45 p.m. on Sunday while spending the afternoon with family at their cottage in Cape Chin North, on the Bruce Peninsula.

A 15-month-old boy from Sarnia, Ont., is recovering at home after being bitten by a rattlesnake at a family cottage on the Thanksgiving long weekend, requiring treatment at two hospitals and 18 doses of antivenom. Wells Gladwish was bitten on the thumb around 12:45 p.m. on Sunday while spending the afternoon with family at their cottage in Cape Chin North, on the Bruce Peninsula. His father, Matt Huggett, said the toddler was walking near a family bonfire when he came upon a snake and tried to pick it up. The snake bit Wells on the thumb, which began to turn white within about five minutes. "We knew right away we were in a pretty bad situation," Huggett said. "The nearest hospital was Lion's Head, and we did everything we could to get him there as fast as possible. "Staff at Lion's Head Hospital needed multiple attempts to start an IV in the active toddler. After a test dose to check for a potentially severe allergic reaction, the team administered 10 vials of antivenom. The hospital had 14 vials in total.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher Isaiah Santistevan led the development of three-dimensional simulations exploring how a nuclear device could deflect or disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. Credit: Blaise Douros/LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be used to deflect or potentially disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth.

Milky Way’s first microblazar candidate sits 12,000 light-years away, offering a rare ground-level lab for studying relativistic jetsA black hole 12,000 light-years away is firing a jet of plasma almost directly toward Earth. At that distance, no known or expected danger to Earth has been identified by the researchers or the institutions involved. What astronomers have actually found is rarer and more interesting than a threat. Researchers have identified IRAS 18293-0941 as a compelling candidate for the Milky Way’s first microblazar, a class of object that gives astrophysicists a close-up laboratory for studying some of the most violent physics in the galaxy. What Astronomers FoundThe discovery centers on a binary system whose black hole expels plasma jets at close to three-quarters the speed of light, pointed almost directly toward Earth. The system pairs a hot, massive star with a black hole that completes a full orbit roughly every 11.38 days. Material drawn from the companion star feeds the black hole, and some of that matter gets expelled outward as opposing jets traveling at approximately three-quarters the speed of light. Terminology matters here.

Forests that stood on Mozambique's coast thousands of years ago now lie beneath shallow seas, and they have become fish-filled "peat reefs" with marine life comparable to coral reefs, researchers report in Scientific Reports. A team from the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS) Ocean Observatory, led by Mario Lebrato, documented the submerged peat in the Bazaruto Archipelago in the Western Indian Ocean. BCSS, founded in 2017, describes itself as Africa's first permanent ocean observatory. Working with universities and institutions in the U. K., U. S. and Canada, the team believes it has carried out the first ecological study of peat reefs anywhere in the tropics. Old forests, new seafloorRadiocarbon dating shows the peat formed between about 300 and 5,000 years ago, and chemical analysis indicates it came mostly from coastal land plants and trees. Some samples contain up to 40% organic carbon by dry weight. Lebrato said the coastline has very little natural hard seabed, mostly shifting sand. As rising seas expose the old peat layers, they create rare solid habitat where marine life can settle, hide and feed.