just keep trying the potion with different villagers. It took me a couple of tries before it didn't blow up. Must not like certain villagers. (Like my Chief blew up on him :))

pros magic= better science
pros nature= faster replenish of crops,just not sure of how much faster.
you just have to try each 1 and see for your self witch 1 you like best.i have 1 island that is magic and another that is nature.

Another food source is fishing after completion of Puzzle 11

Hint with food if you are really desperate put your chief on the food bin and get him/her to create magic food, then pause for 24 hours and wake them up to create more food! Only a temporary solution but may help to keep your villagers from starving before they build up enough tech points. ALso keep looking for mushrooms, the red top mushrooms are worth a lot more food points than the brown.

you need orchid, orchid and pitcher herbs to get rid of sharks then you can fish

It doesn't matter what order you put the herbs in the pot.
If it's blowing up, just keep trying with different villagers like squishedfairy said. Be patient.

Marcey

thanks amelia, finally got level 2 and working on 3. but did get the sharks dealt with, just kept blowing up the lab until it worked, at least no one got killed.

Has anyone gathered all the collectibles?
If so what do they all look like?
I don't know if its okay to post what I have

Here, they are little but…
Collectibles - Spoilers

SPOILERISH ... highlight here you can use your chief to create food once a day. If you food gets very low, pause your game until 24 hr. pass.... its slow but effective