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You might expect to see a bubbling green potion or a black widow when you first enter the Denver Museum of Nature and Science’s (DMNS) newest exhibit, the Power of Poison. Instead, you’ll find a bowl of chocolate candy and a pile of salt. “Basically everything is poisonous depending on who you are and how much you have of it,” says Jenna Chervin, the museum’s educator. “Chocolate isn’t poisonous to us, but it’s not great for your dog. Salt is really important for our diet, but you can’t have too much of it.”
That revelation sets up the theme for the rest of the exhibition: Poison is all around us, and it’s not always harmful. Animals can use venom to defend themselves from predators, scientists harness compounds in toxins to create lifesaving medications, and cultures around the globe believe in the magical effects of potions.
With its dark interior and enchanting dioramas, the Power of Poison hails from New York’s American Museum of Natural History, and this isn’t the first time it’s graced the halls of DMNS. The show first came to the Mile High City in 2015, and it was so popular among visitors that it inspired curators to do something they’d never done before: bring it back nearly 10 years later.
“People love it,” Chervin says. “Even if visitors saw it when it was here 10 years ago, there are a few new elements to discover that weren’t here last time. We wouldn’t bring back just any exhibit, this was one our visitors kept coming back to see.”
The Power of Poison explores toxins in mythology, history, nature, and literature (Harry Potter fans will be particularly delighted) through projections, dioramas, an interactive whodunit-style quest, and even a live show with a surprise ending.
In honor of spooky season—and before the show packs up on January 5—we rounded up five of the most remarkable facts from the exhibit.
1. Poison and venom are not the same.
The words poison and venom might seem like synonyms, but the difference is key to understanding the rest of the exhibit. “If something is injected, that’s a venom. But if you ingest it or absorb it into your skin, that’s a poison,” Chervin explains. “So poison dart frogs are poisonous because if you touch them, it seeps into your skin.” Wasps, on the other hand, deliver venom through their stingers. Not-so-fun-fact: Some things can be both, like the Asian Tiger Snake, which has poisonous glands on its neck and venomous fangs.
2. Macbeth’s magic potion is (somewhat) real.
Students of literature might recall that in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, three witches brew a magic potion with nefarious ingredients. The recipe isn’t completely legitimate (chanting incantations over a lizard’s leg likely won’t yield the desired results), but many of the elements are actual toxins. A yew tree, for instance, can kill animals that chew on it. And hemlock was used to execute the philosopher Socrates. Toil and trouble indeed.
3. Some believe poison was the world’s first killer.
Cultures around the world have their own unique stories about creation, life, and death, but one Sudanese tale proposes that the first man to ever die was poisoned. According to the Ama people of southern Sudan, humans and rabbits were once mortal enemies. After a rabbit gave a man poisonous tree roots under the guise of a gift, the man fell ill and died. That betrayal from the conniving bunny brought death into our world for the first time.
4. Mad hatters might have actually been mad.
To most, the Mad Hatter is nothing more than a character in Alice in Wonderland or an evil villain in the DC comic universe. But it turns out there’s some truth to this stereotype. Beginning in the 18th century, hat makers used mercuric nitrate to create their caps, but working with the poisonous chemical day in and day out made the artisans shaky and irritable. “The mad hatter idea actually came about because hat makers would usually be people who could travel and weren’t held down and went where the wind blew them,” Chervin says. “But then they started to go crazy from the mercury, and the term changed.”
5. Poison can be used in medicine.
The yew tree (also featured in Macbeth) can kill a grown adult who eats a handful of its needles. But in the 1900s, scientists discovered that chemical compounds found in the tree bark could actually fight cancer, which led to the creation of a medication known as paclitaxel. That’s good news for us humans, but bad news for the trees: The yews quickly became threatened through the harvesting process. Thankfully, researchers found other ways to harness the tree’s properties without axing them, meaning that chemists can continue to brew the beneficial medicine without endangering forests.
4 More Cool Art Exhibits To Check Out:
- A New Denver Art Museum Exhibit Takes You Inside a Japanese American Incarceration Camp
- 5 Intriguing Unmentionables at Denver’s New Rumors of Bloomers Exhibit
- 5 Chairs You Have to Sit on at Denver Art Museum’s New Exhibit
- It’s a Yeti’s World at Shiki Dreams
Power of Poison is open at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science through January 5 and is included with general admission. Buy tickets on the museum’s website.
