Chertoff has stated that the magazine's editors decided to investigate 9/11 Myths after seeing Jimmy Walter's full-page ad in The New York Times for a book called Painful Questions.
In a June, 2006 column in Scientific American magazine,[3] Skeptics Society president Dr. Michael Shermer called the Popular Mechanics article "the single best debunking of this conspiratorial codswallop."
In 2006, the magazine published the book Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts, which greatly expanded on the original story, including new myths and much more detail than could fit in the original, magazine article.
In 2007, Benjamin Chertoff left Popular Mechanics and began producing video and audio content for AOL's Switched.com, among other verticals.
He currently lives in New York City, where he is a freelance photojournalist, photographer and documentary video producer.