Well, I'm back. Over the past month, the devastating BP spill that began April 20th has become catastrophic in scale. And that's an understatement. When I checked on my inbox early May, it was overflowing with questions from our readers about oil's impact on the marine realm, its potential to spread, and the long-term possibilities across sectors. Foremost, I want to thank Wallace J. Nichols and Philip Hoffman for posting in my absence when I asked them to provide details. Chris has also done a good job covering the reasons we should all be concerned about the 2010 hurricane forecast. In short, the BP oil spill is as bad as it gets. It's an unprecedented social, environmental, and economic disaster in the US. And it's not over. The public seems to have expected that scientists and engineers would have a quick fix immediately--not surprising given that on television, problems take less than an hour to solve (with commercials). Now any fix will do, but no one's sure what we're dealing with 5000 feet below sea level. I haven't kept up with all of the coverage while overseas, though I'm sure much of what I'd say about the tragedy itself would be repetitious. ...