This genre-blending collection of personal essays, from a self-made inventor and polymer chemist, takes both science buffs and historians alike behind the scenes and alongside the lab benches of Cold War defense development, aerospace engineering, and entrepreneurial biomedicine. A rare combination of heart and science, the author’s writing demonstrates what happens when life's curiosities guide one's path.

From his childhood basement laboratory in Brooklyn, New York, to the deserts of California, the author reveals his greatest inventions and "Eureka!" moments, culminating in his...