If you’ve just been bitten by a venomous snake and your flesh is starting to rot and you can’t breathe, you may not be in the mood to hear how beautiful snake venom can be. But from a safe distance, it really is a marvel to behold.

Snake venom is a blend of molecules, many of which are exquisitely adapted for wreaking havoc. Some are enzymes that slice muscles apart. Some grab onto proteins that normally form clots, so that a snake’s victim can’t stop bleeding. Many snake venoms attack the nervous system with molecular precision that’s so good that neuroscientists have snakes to thank for some of their biggest discoveries.

In the 1950s, two researchers in Taiwan–CY Lee and CC Chang–decided to study the venom of the banded krait. A bite from the snake, native to Taiwan, caused paralysis and shallow breathing–suggesting to the scientists that the snake’s venom must interfere in an interesting way with the nervous system’s control of muscles.

Nerves trigger muscles to contract by releasing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. At first Lee and Chang assumed that the snake venom must cut acetylcholine apart, but they found it had ...