The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that baked the metropolis. An even more repellent force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial waste had transformed London's lifeblood into a nauseating odor. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and sat

On a blustery January in the year, disaster struck Boston. A massive reservoir filled with sticky, sweet molasses burst sending a torrent of the thick liquid crashing through the streets. The force was catastrophic, crushing buildings and entombing citizens in a gooey mass. Dozens of people were killed, and many more sustained injuries. Boston fa