The simple math of heat: pain + pleasure = capsaicin ⁠ Why do we seek out heat, and why does the plant kingdom keeps providing it in ample supply? As Dr. Arielle Johnson (@arielle_johnson) explains, it’s actually all a big mistake, a cosmic joke and happy accident (at least for us humans). ⁠ ⁠ Imagine you’re a pepper plant in the genus Capsicum that is looking, as all plants do, for a way to defend yourself that doesn’t require running away (since you are, quite literally, rooted in place). If you were a cactus, you’d evolve to develop physical spikes. If you were poison ivy, you’d figure out how to make resin that damages the skin. If you’re a chile, you have capsaicin.⁠ ⁠ When chiles created a molecule called capsaicin, that heat only made us want them more. Call it a pepper’s fatal flaw: you go through all that effort to thwart those who want to eat you, only for that very defense to become a giddy, pleasurable, even addictive encouragement to the opposite. ⁠