When civilizations first encounter each other a cascade of change is triggered that both challenges and reinforces the identities of all parties. Making Contact revisits key encounters between cultures in the medieval and early modern world-Europe and Africa, the multiple ethnicities of greater Poland, Christians and Jews, Jesuits and Japanese, Elizabethans vs. aboriginals and vagrants, English and Algonquians, Pierre Radisson and the Iroquois, and the Spaniards in America.

Ion-selective optical sensors (ISO sensors, or simply optodes) are members of an extensive family of nano/microsensors commonly referred to as PEBBLEs (Photonic Explorers for Biomedical use with Biologically Localized Embedding). PEBBLEs is a general term that encompasses a variety of fabrication techniques for miniaturization of well-known sensors. Optodes leverage the same response mechanisms as ion-selective electrodes, contain identical components and became popular as intracellular sensors in early 1990s. They have found broad use in medicine and biology.