My recent beach vacation began with the kind of unfortunate incident that we all dread: killing a distant relative.

As I peer into the cardboard box NIST researcher Amanda Forster holds out for me, I can’t help thinking that this mild-mannered materials scientist has an impressive collection of shivs.

Summer is a great time to catch up on reading. I suppose that’s why there’s such a thing as “summer reading,” which starts in grade school and extends a lifetime (or so goes the theory).