The Weather Scientists Who Can Forecast a National Security Threat

The Federal Air Resources Lab Quietly Helps Prevent Plane Crashes and Chemical Attacks

Zócalo’s editors are highlighting some of our favorite pieces from the archive. This week: Science historian Roger Turner highlights the work of the Air Resources Laboratory, which measures how dangerous things like radioactive debris move around in the air.

You’ve probably never heard of the Air Resources Laboratory. I hadn’t until two years ago, when I was hired to preserve a trove of oral histories recorded in the early 1990s. Those audio cassettes held a history of hidden science, full of amazing stories about nuclear …