The science of food has never looked this good

Have you ever wondered why chocolate is bad for dogs or how grapefruit interacts with drugs? Perhaps you thought the science behind these answers would be boring and complex. Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher from the U.K., plans to change your mind. He has developed simple visual charts that provide these answers and more, as reported today by NPR.

As you can see from the chart above that explains why chocolate is toxic to dogs and cats, Brunning has a way to make the complex understandable while still providing a great deal of information. Brunning “makes beautiful infographics on everyday chemistry on his blog, Compound Interest. Thanks in part to the American Chemical Society, which has turned several of his posts into videos, his clever visuals have been going viral.”

The inspiration for Brunning’s blog and charts were graphics he created to brighten up his classroom and to get his students interested in various parts of the periodic table. “From those, I branched out into making posters on other areas of chemistry, and originally started the site as a way to make them available to other chemistry teachers,” he reported to NPR. Since many of the questions on Brunning’s blog were about food and drink, it was a natural fit to make posters to answser these questions.

You can find more graphics at the NPR article. Also, Brunning has signed a deal to publish his food chemistry visuals book. It’s due out sometime next year.

Graphic courtesy of NPR