The Verge:

When other kids were blowing soap bubbles, Christine Roeger and her sisters were blowing glass bubbles. The bubbles would expand, big and shimmering, until they popped, sending tissues of glass as light as cling wrap floating to the ground. Typical childhood stuff — at least for the kids of a scientific glassblower.

Roeger still takes a certain destructive joy in blowing glass bubbles, but now, she’s a scientific glassblower in her own right, heating and shaping glass into custom scientific instruments. Roeger represents the third generation of her family to take up the career, following both her father and grandfather into a tight-knit community of science and glass.

“Most people that don’t grow up in the scientific glassblowing world don’t even know scientific glassblowing exists,” Roeger says. It’s highly skilled, intense work to bend over flames and handle hot glass that can easily shatter. It’s a challenging calling, but it’s also a passion for people who are drawn to the combination of art and science in their work.

I’ve always loved watching glassblowing but had never thought about the need for specialty scientific glass.