Terrors of the Table is Walter Gratzer's third book on the theme of science as entertaining anecdote. Since his retirement in 2002 from King's College London as a biophysical chemist, he has taken on the less seemly side of the scientific enterprise: the rivalry, envy, delusion, self-deception and outright fraud sometimes committed by researchers ostensibly engaged in the search for truth. As he explained in a radio interview in 2002, his purpose is "to astonish, to instruct and, most especially, to entertain". And what could possibly be more entertaining than the history of nutrition? This, Gratzer says, is "full of fascination and drama, for it encompasses every virtue, defect, and foible of human nature". To reveal the drama — and a taste of the science that underlies it — he tells some familiar stories.
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