Hehe. ETA means 'edited to add'.
Okay, story time
So, this was during a graduate recruitment drive, when lots of students come and visit different labs to see if they'd like to come. The professors and resident grad students are also checking out the new recruits to see if they'd be a good match.
Anyway, this particular guy was visiting the lab where they do the snake/newt work. He was convinced, based on a previous little study he'd done, that the newts don't make TTX on their own - they get it from their diet instead - so any newts held in captivity would be harmless. Well, the professor in the lab and the other grad students were absolutely sure that the newts in the lab, despite being in captivity for many years, were still very toxic.
So this guy feels he absolutely has to prove his point. He reaches into one of the newt tanks, grabs a big ol' fat
Taricha from one of the most toxic populations, and - before anyone can stop him - gives it a big lick. Everyone's totally shocked and they all just stare at this guy, waiting for him to drop dead or at least get a little paralyzed: no one knows if a single lick is enough to kill someone.
After a few minutes, it's obvious that he's going to be fine. He's all happy because he thinks he just proved his point. The professor takes that particular newt and runs a test to see how much TTX it actually contains. It's absolutely loaded with TTX, thousands of times the amount needed to kill one grad student.
The key is that because the newt was so used to being handled, it wasn't overly upset about being grabbed and licked, so it just wasn't secreting any TTX. Needless to say, the guy didn't get into the lab.
So the moral of the story is: don't grab and lick a professor's newts