Zoology technician

The platypus has to be a joke, right? They lay eggs, have a jaw like a beak, have webbed feet, they’re poisonous and have ten pairs of sex chromosomes... are they mammals? Reptiles? Amphibians? In the late 18th century, when a specimen finally made it to London, zoologists at first thought it was a hoax. We now know that platypus are one of the rare poisonous mammals and that – thanks to their famous beaks – they can locate their prey by monitoring the electric field generated by muscle contractions. But their story doesn’t end there. In 2018, Australian researchers discovered a rare protein in platypus milk, which is capable of killing or inhibiting a wide range of bacteria. The discovery represents real hope for developing antibiotic treatments in humans. Great stuff.