Health
Australia’s Stinging Trees: Please Do Not Pet Them – The New York Times
Scientists have found a potent chemical that might give Australian giant stinging trees their extraordinarily painful punch.

But even scientists driven enough to inject themselves with extracts made from the trees toxins have not been able to work out the source of the sting, said Irina Vetter, a pain researcher at the University of Queensland and an author on the new study.
Those experiments, which are ethically gray, can no longer be conducted, Dr. Vetter said. But she, Dr. Gilding and their colleagues were still able to separate out the chemical components of the toxin from two Dendrocnide species and create synth…
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