Sarah Tuttle, a Columbia graduate student, is sitting amid piles of petri dishes, metal coiling, and telescopes. She is trying to place a large, and, as it turns out, rather difficult order. Specifically, she needs a bunch of mirrors re-coated with better aluminum.And she needs them soon. “Yeah, it is a crazy request, I completely understand,” she says into the telephone. It is, however, a necessary one.
