George Zaidan welcomes readers with a story set thousands of feet above sea level, on a plateau in the central Andean region, where Mother Nature grows killer potatoes. These tubers contain a smorgasbord of chemicals that can irritate your mouth, land you with a fever, or make you lose your lunch. If you eat enough of them, the chemicals within can kill. But there’s a way to eat your fill and live to tell the tale: dip the potatoes in a clay sauce. Zaidan, an MIT-trained chemist, will explore the chemistry of almost everything that makes life comfortable—what you should worry about and what you shouldn’t. Sugar, preservatives, sunscreen, formaldehyde, cyanide (not to mention the substance that is 50 million times more deadly than cyanide), Oreos, the ingredients of life and death and nature itself, as well as the genius of aphids are all discussed in exquisite detail at breakneck speed, interspersed with footnotes and informative diagrams.