When Carl Schmidt was 14 years old, he set up a chemistry lab in his bedroom.

But things did not go exactly as planned during one experiment.

First, he spelled acid on the carpet.

Then he mixed a bit too much of two ingredients together, and the test tube erupted.

Things quickly got out of hand.

Between the sizzling and the popping and

Schmidt's yelping, his mom barged in before too long. She was a science person herself. She loved

botany and astronomy, and she used to quiz Carl about trees and constellations. But that day,

she just stared at the damaged table and carpet.

She asked what happened.

Schmidt admitted he had spilled a little acid, or a lot of acid.

Then there was the eruption.

She stayed silent.

And she nodded and said, well, don't hurt yourself.

And you'd better grow up to be a genius.

Schmidt grinned, feeling a wave of relief. He promised he would try. If not a genius,

Schmidt did grow up to become an excellent scientist, an expert on venomous snakes, although today he's best remembered for one thing,

a diary he kept after an encounter with a toxic serpent in 1957.

The diary is inspiring in some ways, but chilling in others,

because in 40-plus years of studying snakes before that,

Carl Schmidt had never suffered a major bite.

And when he finally did,

...