“About four hours before a launch, the Falcon 9 starts getting filled with an immense amount of liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene.  Some of the liquid oxygen vents out of the rocket as it awaits launch and is kept so cold that it boils off on contact with the metal and air, forming white plumes […]

    In Part 1, we examined several ways that opening the Great Lakes to an ecological invasion of species began with the earliest attempts to ease transport of goods from the Atlantic Coast inland.  Using Dan Egan’s book The Death and Life of the Great Lakes as a guide, we looked at how opening the door, […]

       Prior to 1900, the Chicago River flowed into Lake Michigan carrying with it a feted cargo of sewage from the growing metropolis of the same name.  Lake Michigan also served as the Chicago’s source of drinking water. The movers and shakers in the city decided the best way to solve their sewage/fresh water problem […]

      “The group weren’t waiting for long before Max Faget walked into the room.  Carrying a garment bag, the impish chief engineer, five feet six inches in his bow tie, jumped up on a desk in front of them.  They had seen this kind of thing before from their boss, Faget was prone to performing […]