At some point in the distant past, the ancestors of that tarantula hit upon a survival strategy that involved simulating intense, painful heat with their venom. Today, the Frito-Lay corporation sells billions of dollars’ worth of snack foods that rely on the exact same biochemical channels to create the perception of heat. When you taste that Doritos chip, you are receiving a signal that evolution has been crafting for millions of years, a signal with a simple, universal message: “Fire!” And here’s the amazing thing: we took that signal and turned it into something enjoyable and unthreatening,
...more
