Snakes are often the villains. A new book gives them a fair shake

Snakes don’t often get to be the protagonists. From the biblical tempter in the Garden of Eden to the eponymous snakes on a plane, your stereotypical serpent often gets cast as a villain — cunning, treacherous, cruel, deadly. But human views of snakes are full of contradictions. In mythology, snakes whispered secrets about the healing arts to the Greeks and established the concept of linear time in Mesoamerica. In the real world, they continue to inspire scientists in fields as diverse as pharmacology, reproductive biology and disaster relief.

Drawing from a rich vein of history, anthropology and cutting-edge biology, science writer Stephen S. Hall uncoils the complexity of snakes and humans’ love-hate relationship with them in his new book, Slither. Each chapter explores a facet of snake biology — such as locomotion and the chemistry of venom — that shows why the limbless animals evoke fear and fascination in seemingly equal measure. Personal histories of snake researchers and enthusiasts, along with Hall’s own field reporting, bring the science to life. Sidebars dubbed “Snake Road” wind their way through the narrative, offering a set of real roads as geographic examples of humans’ and snakes’ interconnection.

One such Snake Road is Eastern Parkway in New York City, which leads to the Brooklyn Museum, the home of an ancient Egyptian medical handbook known as the Snakebite Papyrus. The handwritten hieroglyphs describe the dangerous snakes known at the time, as well as symptoms of their bites and suggested cures. Hall details a visit to see this rare text, which is not on public display, using a delightful blend of reverence and dry wit. A museum curator points out that in ancient Egyptian writing, the symbol for venom was derived from the one for phallus. Hall quips: “Long before Jung and Freud, apparently, humans had made the connection.”

Crucially, Hall does not shy away from the very real danger snakes can represent. He describes the ruinous and often lethal effects of snakebites in sobering detail, reminding readers why these animals deserve a healthy dose of respect. He also flicks at the scientific theory that early primates evolved the ability to rapidly detect motion because they needed to be wary of snakes in the wild. The implication is that humans are hardwired to be alarmed by the reptiles.

Hall balances this cautionary note with meticulously researched tales of historical and ongoing snake science and its benefits to humans. For example, the first ACE inhibitor, a class of drugs used to lower blood pressure, was derived from a South American pit viper. Python research is offering tantalizing clues for diabetes treatments and organ regeneration. And studies of the sidewinder are helping engineers build snakelike robots that can wriggle into tight spaces to search for survivors after a disaster.

Humans are also taking a toll on snakes, from global habitat degradation to rattlesnake roundups in Texas. In a chapter about people who hunt Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades, Hall asks readers to rethink the word invasive, which he describes as “a brilliant marketing term, coined by humans to shift attention away from their own stupidity.” After all, these Southeast Asian pythons did not ask to become residents of the Sunshine State. They landed there probably due to the pet trade and quickly adapted to the environment using every genetic advantage they had.

Hall’s journalistic training is evident in his need to cite sources, sometimes to the narrative’s detriment. Some passages can be so stuffed with names, affiliations and factual asides that readers may lose the plot at times. But Hall makes up for this with clear science, drama-filled anecdotes and deep pathos. It is the Year of the Snake, after all, and Slither makes sure these oft-maligned animals get a fair shake.

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