Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild) returns to the question of how Chris McCandless died. While the proximal cause was starvation, it would appear that McCandless starved in the wild because he was paralyzed by an obscure toxin found in wild potato (Hedysarum alpinum) seeds:
The one constant about ODAP poisoning, however, very simply put, is this: those who will be hit the hardest are always young men between the ages of 15 and 25 and who are essentially starving or ingesting very limited calories, who have been engaged in heavy physical activity, and who suffer trace-element shortages from meager, unvaried diets.
I don’t buy it. See Into the Wild and Other Poisonous Plant Fables for a much better treatment. McCandless just wasn’t finding enough to eat and when he decided to call it quits he found his exit route blocked by a flooded river.
“Hamilton’s essay offered persuasive new evidence that the wild-potato plant is highly toxic in and of itself, contrary to the assurances of Thomas Clausen and every other expert who has ever weighed in on the subject.”
An object lesson in taking experts far less seriously than they take themselves.