by Steven Long | May 29, 2022 | Chemicals, Mushrooms
A couple of summers ago, I chanced upon a fantastic mushroom: Amanita muscaria. It was part of a colony that sprouted near the edge of a field. Beautiful and toxic, the mushrooms were busy doing what all fungi do: decomposing organic matter. Fungi are so adept at...
by Steven Long | Jan 28, 2022 | Construction
In “Making the Impossible Possible: Concrete,” I examine the history of concrete. For 12 millennia, humans have been using concrete to strengthen floors and walls. And as we tweaked its list of ingredients, making it more robust, those walls became roofs,...
by Steven Long | Jan 19, 2022 | Construction, Environment, Pollution
Thomas Alva Edison and concrete. He’s associated with many things, like the lightbulb, the phonograph, the telegraph, batteries, and even the motion picture camera, but concrete? Strange as it may seem, this tireless inventor with more than a thousand patents to his...
by Steven Long | Jan 2, 2022 | Plastics, Pollution
I’ve been thinking a lot about microplastics lately. A couple of days ago, I spent the morning at my mechanic. Swallowing the last drops of coffee from my travel mug, I passed by Justin, the garage manager extraordinaire, on my way to the restroom to rinse the mug and...
by Steven Long | Dec 30, 2021 | Plastics, Pollution
Tinier than five millimeters, microplastics have become ubiquitous in our lives. From the sheets we sleep in, to the clothes we wear, they are ever-present—even in the water we use for daily tasks like bathing and cooking. Comparable to the size of sesame seeds, these...
