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Space to grow: These shotgun-shell-shaped cylinders appear poised to blast off-and they are. The multicolored casings are autoclaves, special chambers that will hold chemical solutions. The platform from which they protrude is actually a furnace. Eventually, the whole contraption will be thrust into orbit on a space shuttle mission. Inside each autoclave, crystals will grow in a solution prepared by chemical engineering professor Al Sacco, a former astronaut. The goal: to learn how crystals grown in space differ from those grown on Earth.
Photograph by J. D. Levine
