Most Delicious Poison
Noah Whiteman
Little, Brown Spark, $30
The book weeds through chemistry, evolution and world history to explore the origins of toxins and how humans have co-opted them for everything from medicines to spices to pesticides. “The chemicals in these products of nature are not a sideshow — they are the main event,” Whiteman writes, “and we’ve unwittingly stolen them from a war raging all around us.”
That tussle, part of what Charles Darwin called the “war of nature,” is the innovative ways plants and animals continuously evolve traits that one-up their predators or competitors. Many of the chemicals that we stock in our cabinets and pharmacies, for instance, originated in plants as deterrents against insects snacking on them, Whiteman points out. These chemicals act on our brains and bodies thanks to the surprising neurological similarities between insects and humans.
Whiteman, who studies how insects adapt to plant toxins, is a knowledgeable tour guide through this greenhouse of poisons and cures. And it is a greenhouse. Though people put some animal-made toxins to use, the plant derivatives steal the show.
2023-11-20 08:00:00
Post from www.sciencenews.org
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