Yet all she knew of indoor gardening was a lone, neglected houseplant at the top of her basement stairs. Paradise Under Glass chronicles her journey from brown thumb to green—a project that takes her across the country. Along the way she meets commercial growers with acres under glass in Florida, a clivia hybridizer whose Delaware home is filled with thousands of specimens, a beneficial bug grower in California, entrepreneurs in Ohio who have a veritable Noah’s Ark of rare tropicals, and many others who share their enthusiasms and knowledge.

Kassinger takes us step-by-step from the construction of her conservatory through her efforts to identify the easiest to grow, most beautiful houseplants. She combats pests, raises Monarch butterflies, and harvests kumquats and coffee beans. Her Garden of Eden is complete with a pint-sized pool and a “living wall” she invents.

Kassinger’s journey to create her own tropical refuge is also a lively narrative tour of the glasshouses of the past, including Renaissance orangeries, the whimsical follies of Georgian England, the legendary Crystal Palace, and secluded Victorian ferneries.

Throughout, she shares the knowledge and insights that creating and sustaining her garden has bestowed, lessons of loss and letting go, nurturing and rebirth, challenge and change, love and serenity. Paradise Under Glass is the remarkable story of the fruition of a dream that is sure to inspire us all.

Discover the history and the science behind classic inventions and experience your own “Eureka!” moments of inspiration with this unique book.Though the ages resourceful humans have found ingenious ways to meet the need of the moment with inventions ranging from catapults to colorful dyes to compasses, from paper to batteries. With this fantastic collection of 25 hands-on projects, you will uncover the answers to intriguing questions like: Who created ink?Why did Archimedes invent the water screw? How did Galileo invent a thermometer? Ruth Kassinger mixes science and fun, and inspires 8 to 13-year-olds to tap their own creativity to solve ancient problems.

Through observation, experimentation, and perseverance, humans through the ages have managed to solve an array of perplexing problems. These solutions have included such incredible inventions as the parachute, the periscope, the solar water heater, the suspension bridge, the stethoscope, and more more. Now, you too can experience those moments of inspiration and sharpen your problem-solving skills while you explore the history and science behind some of the world’s most exciting inventions. With easy-to-follow instructions on how to make everything from a rocket, to a kaleidoscope, to a bottle organ, Build a Better Mousetrap is filled with enough exciting challenges to get you started on a lifetime of invention. A Children’s-Book-of-the-Month-Club Main Selection.

In Ceramics, Ruth Kassinger covers the history of ceramics from the eleventh century b.c. when the first fired clay pots were made in Japan to today’s bioceramics that are used to repair human bones and artificial gemstones almost indistinguishable from natural ones. Along the way, she tells the story of ancient Chinese porcelain and the founding of the Meissen porcelain factory in the 1700s. A chapter on the science behind ceramics explains how water, alumina, and silica bond at the molecular level under intense and prolonged heat. Kassinger also relates the methods of making pottery. Selected by the New York Public Library for their “2004 Books for the Teen Age”

The ancient people of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) were the first to discover how to turn sand into glass. These early glassmakers created beads and other small pieces of jewelry out of glass. Over time, people learned to use glass for bottles, windows, mirrors, and great works of art. Today, high-tech glass can be made bulletproof and turned into flexible cables no wider than a hair that carry light signals into our home TVs. Kassinger also explains the science behind glass, why it is both a liquid and a solid, and why it shatters into jagged pieces.

People began making textiles since around 6000 b.c, and soon started coloring them with plant and animal dyes. In the early 1200s, Venice became a center for trade between the East and West. Venetians who were experts at dying organized into powerful guilds that specialized in particular colors, especially red. The dyes were made from secret recipes and those who cheated by using cheaper but less permanent red dye could have a hand cut off. Indigo, which dyes blue, was important in the early American economy. The Spanish made a fortune in the Renaissance by controlling the market for cochineal, an insect indigenous to Mexico, that made a prized scarlet dye. In 1909 Eugene Schuller developed a new kind of hair coloring and founded the L’Oreal Company. Kassinger explains how dyes bond chemically to textiles and what makes them permanent. Selected by the National Science Teachers Association as a “2003 Outstanding Science Book”.

Iron ore is a common material found around the world. Beginning in approximately 1350 B.C. in what is now Turkey, the Hittites learned to produce wrought iron for daggers and swords, which were considered superior to those fashioned by other peoples. During the last several millennia, experimenters in many other cultures discovered various ways to work with iron, producing everything from weapons, tools, and armor to plows, railroads, bridges, and skyscrapers. In this book—fifth in the author’s “Material World” series—the history, mythology, and science of iron is presented. Topics include the ancients’ beliefs in iron as a living entity; technological advances in furnaces and iron production techniques; the evolution of wrought iron, cast iron, Bessemer steel, and stainless steel; and iron’s impact on the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s and 1800s. Kassinger describes the chemical properties of iron and how various smelting and forging techniques have affected iron and steel production.