Matthew Wills has advanced degrees in library science and film studies and is lapsed in both fields. He has published in Poetry, Huffington Post, and Nature Conservancy Magazine, among other places, and blogs regularly about urban natural history at matthewwills.com.
Popcorn is probably one of the oldest uses of the domesticated Mexican grass called teosinte, which has been cultivated as maiz for thousands of years.
Robert H. Goddard is acknowledged by many as the "father" of rocketry, but it's a strange paternity since he had so little influence on his contemporaries.
