Many readers have suggested topics for this column. I try to keep a file of these recommendations so I can acknowledge whoever was responsible for an idea I might pursue. Unfortunately, I cannot find the original correspondence that first sowed the seed for the present column, but I was reminded of it when I received a more recent email from Virginia Trimble, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, who wanted to know if I had ever written on "bridges made of highly unconventional materials." I replied to her that I had not, at least not about bridges made of what she suggested as a suitable material: "hard-frozen tomatoes."
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