Preface | p. xiii |
Acknowledgments | p. xvii |
1 If You Do Hot Know Any Chemistry, This Chapter Is For You | p. 1 |
Representing Atoms and Molecules in Chemistry | p. 1 |
Neurotransmitters | p. 7 |
Intermolecular forces | p. 11 |
2 The Only True Aphrodisiac and Other Chemical Extremes | p. 15 |
Death Is Its Withdrawal Symptom! | p. 15 |
What Is the Number One Cause of Liver Failure in the United States? | p. 18 |
The Most Addictive Substance Known | p. 21 |
40 Million Times Deadlier Than Cyanide | p. 24 |
The Most Abused Drug in the United States | p. 27 |
What Is the Only Known Aphrodisiac? | p. 28 |
The Most Consumed Psychoactive Substance | p. 30 |
40,000 Tons of Aspirin | p. 33 |
How Bitter Is the Bitterest? | p. 34 |
$62.5 Trillion per Gram | p. 36 |
What Is the Most Abundant Source of Air Pollution? | p. 39 |
Where Did That Rash Come From? | p. 41 |
It Would Take an Elephant on a Pencil | p. 43 |
The Largest Industrial Accident in World History | p. 46 |
What Is the Most Important Chemical Reaction? | p. 49 |
Further Reading | p. 53 |
3 The Poisons in Everyday Things | p. 63 |
Why Is Antifreeze Lethal? | p. 63 |
Aqua Dots: What a Difference a Carbon Makes! | p. 66 |
How Can Visine® Kill You? | p. 68 |
Death by BENGAY® | p. 70 |
It Is in 93% of People in the United States | p. 72 |
The Dreaded...Apricot Pits? | p. 75 |
Honey Intoxication | p. 79 |
The DMSO Patient | p. 81 |
Deadly Helium Balloons | p. 82 |
The 2007 Pet Food Recall | p. 83 |
Mercury in Vaccines and Eye Drops? | p. 87 |
The World's Deadliest Frog | p. 88 |
Leaded Candy | p. 89 |
Why not Drink "Real" Root Beer? | p. 90 |
The Killer Fog | p. 92 |
Nail Polish or Nail Poison? | p. 93 |
Game Board Danger | p. 94 |
What Molecule Killed "Weird Al" Yankovic's Parents? | p. 96 |
Deadly Popcorn | p. 98 |
Even Water Can Be Poisonous | p. 99 |
Further Reading | p. 101 |
4 Why Old Books Smell Good and Other Mysteries of Everyday Objects | p. 113 |
The Smell of Old Books and the Hidden Vanilla Extract Underworld | p. 113 |
That Smell Is You! | p. 117 |
Electric Blue | p. 118 |
The World's Most Abundant Organic Compound | p. 120 |
Chalk Used to Be Alive | p. 122 |
Decaffeinated? Try Deflavored! | p. 123 |
Bad Blood | p. 125 |
The Problem with Dry Cleaning | p. 128 |
The Smell of Dead Fish | p. 131 |
How to Make a Spark | p. 133 |
The "New Car Smell" | p. 133 |
A Gecko Cannot Stick to It! | p. 135 |
Why Are Day Glow Colors and Highlighter Pens So Bright? | p. 137 |
Why Your White Clothes Are not Really White? | p. 139 |
How Can a Spray-on Sunscreen Be Dangerous? | p. 141 |
There Is Ink in That Paper | p. 141 |
Vomit and Sunless Tanners | p. 143 |
Formaldehyde; Funerals, Flooring, and Outer Space | p. 144 |
Further Reading | p. 148 |
5 Bath Salts and Other Drugs of Abuse | p. 157 |
What Are the Dangers of Bath Salts? | p. 157 |
What to Do If You Want Your Skin to Turn Blue | p. 163 |
The Flesh-Rotting Street Drug | p. 165 |
How Does a Breathalyzer Detect a Blood Alcohol Level? | p. 167 |
How to Become a Brewery | p. 168 |
How Was a Painkiller Used to Free Hostages? | p. 171 |
The Secret Ingredient in Coca-Cola® | p. 173 |
Why Is Crack Cocaine So Addicting? | p. 174 |
Cocaine Smuggling versus Methamphetamine Manufacture | p. 177 |
What Basic Common Ingredient Is Needed to Make the Drugs Vicodin®, Percocet®, Oxycontin®, and Percodan®? | p. 177 |
Drug Money Is Right | p. 181 |
What Percentage of Americans Use Prescription Drugs? | p. 182 |
Are You Ready for Powdered Alcohol? | p. 183 |
Ecstasy Is Ruining the Rain Forests | p. 185 |
How Are Moldy Bread, Migraine Headaches, LSD, and the Salem Witch Trials All Related? | p. 187 |
Further Reading | p. 193 |
6 Why Oil Is Such a Big Part of Our Lives | p. 201 |
What Substance Is Used to Make 80% of All Pharmaceuticals? | p. 201 |
Why Do Scientists Think Oil Comes From Fossilized Plants and Animals? | p. 205 |
How Is Oil Made? | p. 207 |
Where Is Most of the Carbon in the World? | p. 209 |
The Most Widely Recycled Material in the United States | p. 209 |
What Material Is Used to Make Asphalt? | p. 210 |
How Oil Helped to Save the Whales | p. 211 |
Further Reading | p. 213 |
7 Why Junior Mints® Are Shiny and Other Weird Facts about Your Food | p. 217 |
Why Is Gum Chewy? | p. 217 |
The Problem with Gummi Bears | p. 220 |
What Is the Easiest Way to Peel a Tomato? | p. 223 |
Another Way to Eat Insect Parts! | p. 224 |
Why Is High Fructose Corn Syrup More Consumed than Sugar? | p. 226 |
What Causes Rancid Butter to Stink? | p. 229 |
Why Does Mint Make Your Mouth Feel "Cold?" | p. 232 |
It Is Probably Not Really Fresh Squeezed | p. 234 |
Why Are Viruses Added to Some Sandwich Meat? | p. 236 |
What Is Margarine Made From? | p. 239 |
Why Are Junior Mints® Shiny? | p. 241 |
Further Reading | p. 244 |
8 The Radioactive Banana and Other Examples of Natural Radioactivity | p. 251 |
Where Does the Helium We Use in Balloons Come From? | p. 253 |
Who Was the First Person to Win Two Nobel Prizes? | p. 255 |
Where Is the Radioactive Material in YOUR House? | p. 257 |
Which Elements Were First Detected in Radioactive Fallout from a Nuclear Bomb? | p. 258 |
Radioactivity in Wristwatches, Exit Signs, and H-Bombs | p. 260 |
The Earth Is One Giant Nuclear Reactor | p. 262 |
Are Nuclear Reactors "Natural"? | p. 263 |
Are Your Gemstones Radioactive? | p. 265 |
Radon: The Radioactive Gas in Your Home | p. 267 |
The Radioactive Banana | p. 269 |
Further Reading | p. 271 |
9 Chemistry Is Explosive! | p. 277 |
How Do Bullets Work? | p. 277 |
What Is the Most Commonly Used Explosive in North America? | p. 280 |
What Non-nuclear Substance Is the Most Explosive? | p. 282 |
What Poison Is Used as an Explosive in Air bags? | p. 283 |
Explosive Heart Medicine | p. 285 |
Further Reading | p. 287 |
10 The Chemistry in Breaking Bad and Other Popular Culture | p. 291 |
How Does Methamphetamine Act as a Stimulant? | p. 291 |
What Is "Pseudo," and How Is It Related to Methamphetamine? | p. 294 |
What Is Ricin? | p. 297 |
The Thalidomide Disaster | p. 298 |
What Is Phosphine Gas, and Why Is It a Potential Murder Weapon? | p. 300 |
Acetylcholine, Pesticides, and Nerve Gas | p. 301 |
Further Reading | p. 310 |
11 Why You Should Not Use Illegally Made Drugs: The Organic Chemistry Reason | p. 315 |
Why You Shouldn't Use Illegally Made Drugs | p. 315 |
The Tragic Case of the Frozen Addicts | p. 320 |
Further Reading | p. 326 |
Index | p. 327 |