George Zaidan is a science communicator, television and web host, and producer. He created National Geographic s webseries Ingredients, and he cowrote and directed MIT s webseries Science Out Loud. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, The Boston Globe, National Geographic Magazine, NPR s The Salt, NBC s Cosmic Log, Science, Business Insider, and Gizmodo. He is currently executive producer at the American Chemical Society. Ingredients is his first book.

NATIONAL ONLINE AUTHOR PLATFORM: George Zaidan established a following as the co-host of CNBC's hit series Make Me a Millionaire Inventor and host of National Geographic's webseries Ingredients. His work has been featured in many publications (see bio) and his current role in communications for the American Chemical Society gives us access to a huge membership of core readers and popularizers. TED-Ed has already committed to supporting the book.LAUGH OUT LOUD SCIENCE: with a balancing blend of informative fascinating facts and insights into how chemistry surrounds us.BOOKS BASED ON THE PERIODIC TABLE: have a long successful track record from The Disappearing Spoon by Zaidan's friend Sam Kean, to the award-winning Stuff Matters and even Primo Levi's literary masterpiece The Periodic Table. Zaidan has a voice no reader will forget.

 "When it comes to chemicals and our bodies, there are no simple answers. Thanks to George Zaidan, there are beautifully clear, elegant, accurate explanations. And they're funny.  Zaidan has accomplished something I would not have thought possible. He has written an entertaining book about chemistry.  Thank you, George, for this much-needed breakwater against the tide of misinformation that sloshes onto our screens."  
Mary Roach, author of Stiff

Cheese puffs. Coffee. Sunscreen. Vapes. George Zaidan reveals what will kill you, what won t, and why explained with high-octane hilarity, hysterical hijinks, and other things that don t begin with the letter H.
 
INGREDIENTS offers the perspective of a chemist on the stuff we eat, drink, inhale, and smear on ourselves. Apart from the burning question of whether you should eat those Cheetos, Zaidan explores a range of topics. Here s a helpful guide:
 
Stuff in this book:
- How bad is processed food? How sure are we?
- Is sunscreen safe? Should you use it?
- Is coffee good or bad for you?
- What s your disease horoscope?
- What is that public pool smell made of?
- What happens when you overdose on fentanyl in the sun?
- What do cassava plants and Soviet spies have in common?
- When will you die?

Stuff in other books:
- Your carbon footprint
- Food sustainability
- GMOs
- CEO pay
- Science funding
- Politics
- Football
- Baseball
- Any kind of ball, really
 
Zaidan, an MIT-trained chemist who cohosted CNBC s hit Make Me a Millionaire Inventor and wrote and voiced several TED-Ed viral videos, makes chemistry more fun than Hogwarts as he reveals exactly what science can (and can t) tell us about the packaged ingredients sold to us every day. Sugar, spinach, formaldehyde, cyanide, the ingredients of life and death, and how we know if something is good or bad for us as well as the genius of aphids and their butts are all discussed in exquisite detail at breakneck speed.