The Garden is pleased to host UC Berkeley professor Noah Whiteman, author of the new book "Most Delicious Poison: The Story of Nature’s Toxins—From Spices to Vices", as he reveals the “deadly secret [that] lurks within our kitchens, medicine cabinets and gardens…” Through the lens of evolutionary biology we can see how the formation of strange chemicals found below the surface of certain foods, from coffee beans to chilli flakes, developed as a sort of ‘biological weapon’ to repel marauding insects and animals, but have now become integral parts of human life. Some we use to greet our days (caffeine) and titillate our tongues (capsaicin), others to bend our minds (psilocybin) and take away our pains (opioids). Delving into the mysterious origins of plant and fungal toxins, and their unique human history, Most Delicious Poison provides a kaleidoscopic tour of nature’s most delectable and dangerous poisons.
About the speaker
Noah Whiteman is an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is Professor of Integrative Biology and of Molecular and Cell Biology. At Berkeley, he is also affiliated with the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Center for Computational Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Jepson and University Herbaria, and Essig Museum of Entomology. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020 to write Most Delicious Poison and lives in Oakland.
Event details
Event registration includes general Botanical Garden admission before the collections close at 5:00pm.
Program takes place in the Garden’s Julia Morgan Hall, doors open at 5:30pm, program begins at 6:00pm.
Book sales, signing, and light reception included.