Professional app developers might work alone or as part of a group. In the 1960s in Las Vegas, the Rat Pack of entertainers included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop -- a group with a reputation for drinking and womanizing. A sump pump pushes the solution through a pipe and out of a series of nozzles that atomize the solution and spray a fine fog directly onto the roots.
Hydroponics (growing roots in a nutrient rich, water-based medium instead of soil) came into popular use in the West in the 1970s. Research and use of aeroponic systems continued behind the scenes, however, and the technique made its big public debut when "The Land" pavilion at Disney's Epcot Center opened in 1982. In the 1990s, study and refinement of these techniques took off after NASA funded a project by a small aeroponics operation.