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Imagine you're a toxic toad, hanging around South America when you finally get your big break.

You and your family are going abroad.

To Japan, as pest control.

No other animals are going to mess with you, right?

After all, you're toxic.

If anyone tries to eat you,

they'll be exposed to something called a cardiotonic steroid, and they may die of a heart attack.

And when they're ingested and they reach the bloodstream, and from the bloodstream, they reach cells, they bind to and disable one particular protein, and this

protein is the sodium potassium pump. It plays a role in almost every single physiological system.

Blood pressure, regulation, cardiac contractility, brain function.

Evolutionary biologist Shabna Momadi says there are hundreds of different kinds of these toxins.

But wait, that bird over there just ate your cousin, and it doesn't seem to be getting sick at all.

What the heck is going on?

Unfortunately for Toads, some animals have developed adaptations to toxic

steroids, and Shabnum, who goes by Shab, has spent our whole career studying how animals can eat

foods that are laced with these poisons, without dying. What is their adaptation? How does it work?

Humans have used this toxin to their advantage throughout time. The first written

evidence goes all the way back to ancient Egypt. There's a papyrus known as the Eber papyrus.

...