The Life Scientific: Mark O'Shea

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do you feel about snakes? What about highly venomous ones?

For Mark O’Shea, close encounters with the world’s most rare and deadly snakes are not only his profession, but his passion. Mark is a Professor of Herpetology - the area of zoology focusing on reptiles and amphibians - at the University of Wolverhampton.

After dropping out of college in his teens, Mark's life could have taken a very different direction; but prompted by a fascination with reptiles that started with a childhood trip to the zoo, he's gone on to have a career spanning research, international expeditions and broadcasting. He's also worked with international medical teams, studying deadly species and helping to generate antidotes for some of the world’s deadliest venoms.

In conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Mark reveals the challenges around generating antivenom for countries that need it, the pros and cons of keeping snakes as pets, and what you need to know if you ever get bitten...

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili Produced by Lucy Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.0	My Christmas Mix is pure 90s festive nostalgia.
0:11.1	You know, the Christmas songs you listen to on repeat.
0:14.0	Oh, ho!
0:15.7	No, no, no.
0:17.5	I'm all about the big hitting Christmas anthems.
0:20.4	Come on, guys. What about those tunes that really slay?
0:23.7	It's Christmas kitchen disco season, surely.
0:26.4	Give me hip-hop Christmas bangers every day.
0:28.6	Those Christmas tracks that are straight out of lapland.
0:30.9	Get all kinds of Christmassy.
0:32.6	Just search Christmas music on BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Picture the scene. You've just been bitten by that most famous of venomous snakes,
0:40.9	the king cobra. The venom is already working its way through your system and will cause
0:45.6	paralysis and potentially death within minutes, unless you're able to stay calm and take exactly
0:51.9	the right steps to save your own life.
0:55.7	Think he could manage that?
0:59.4	To some, this might sound like the plot of the latest Indiana Jones movie,
1:02.5	for others, an uncomfortably detailed nightmare.
1:07.8	For today's guest, it's just one story in a career full of close encounters with the world's most venomous, rare and deadly snakes.
1:12.1	Mark O'Shea is a professor of herpetology, the area of zoology focusing on reptiles and amphibians
1:17.9	at the University of Wolverhampton, and also a scientific associate in herpetology at the Natural History Museum.
	...

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