In our normal everyday lives we are exposed to an incredibly complex chemical soup consisting of an enormous variety of different chemical compounds. Many of these compounds contain metal atoms which, once inside us, can either fulfill roles that are essential to health, or act as poisons. Studies at SLAC's Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) reveal the molecular details of metals in living systems; how they interact with one another, how they confer beneficial properties, and how they act as poisons.