Chemical substances have irrevocably changed our world. For some, they are unsettling, even though they seem quite unremarkable at first glance. They are, in any case, indispensable in our lives. And their true strengths remain hidden from view. Christian Mähr reveals the astonishing backgrounds of the twelve most important substances. Did you know that the World Health Organization has recently recommended the long-demonized DDT as a miracle cure for malaria? That sugar production has been steadily increasing for half a millennium, interrupted only by the slave uprising in Haiti in 1800? These are stories about human and inhuman dreams, reports on desires, greed, illness, and hope. From gasoline to soda, from aniline to penicillin, Christian Mähr traces the chemical footprints in our lives.