Dan Levitt is the author of What’s Gotten Into You: The Story of Your Body’s Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night’s Dinner. The book brings together a lifetime of discovery and research that led to a sweet spot where history meets science. He fondly recalls receiving a chemistry kit at age seven and recording his results in a small notebook. He still misses the musty library cards he once browsed while researching assignments for classes in Philadelphia’s public schools. In high school, his favorite class was ­chemistry and at Swarthmore College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, he became fascinated by cognitive psychology and biology.

In the Peace Corps in Kenya, Dan taught  physics, math, and biology in a rural high school. Living close to Mount Kilimanjaro, walking by anthills as tall as people, and seeing wildlife, like snakes and hippos, up close-up, sparked a deeper curiosity about science and the natural world. Back in Philadelphia, he developed major exhibits and videos for the Franklin Institute Science Museum. After receiving an MFA in filmmaking, Dan moved to Boston to begin a career writing, producing, and directing science and history documentaries for Discovery, Science, National Geographic, History, HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute), and others. His productions included films on the possibility of recreating dinosaurs through genetic engineering; how Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and Hawking made their greatest discoveries; the archeology of Custer’s Last Stand; and scientist’s efforts to uncover the cause of Malaysia’s deadly Nipah virus. His work has received numerous awards including two Cine-Golden Eagles, Emmy award nominations, and the coveted Spur Award for script writing from the Western Writers of America.

What’s Gotten Into You: The Story of Your Body’s Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night’s Dinner, from HarperCollins, is his first book. Dan lives in Cambridge with his wife, two kids, and their dog, Maxwell Smart. He is currently writing another work of popular science.