A story I worked on for nearly a year is finally out in Smithsonian. It’s about the origins of life. We’re talking way, way, way back, billions of years, to the time when Earth was rock and water and a very different atmosphere, because plants didn’t exist and therefore hadn’t started spitting out oxygen yet. It’s about how the very first building blocks of life, in this case amino acids, were formed and found each other on an unfriendly planet.
The story ended up being a profile of Bob Hazen, a mineralogist at the Carnegie Institution for Science here in Washington who also collects trilobites and Hudson River School paintings, writes a lot of books and articles, and plays professional trumpet.
I’ve blogged about this story a number of times, which I can now point out – this visit to the lab became the section in the story where I watched Kateryna Klochko do her work. This and this were for a section of the story that got cut. This…was never in the story. I just thought it was funny. This is a question that came up in my reporting.
And I started going to these concerts because Hazen was playing in one, and I haven’t missed one since. Free Bach at lunchtime – you can’t beat it.
Wow, that’s a long time to work on one story! I have added it to my “must reads” and hopefully get to it this week.
LOVE those cantata concerts. I’ve only been to two, but I adore Bach cantatas. Jealous you’re going to all of them now!
Longest story gestation ever!! I think I turned in my draft in April or so? Then it got scheduled and bumped once or twice. Of course, I think you should buy a copy and read it in print.
It’s pretty with the pictures.
(I started reporting in October or November 2009.)
CHON! CHON! CHON!
Please tell me you referenced the CHON movie!!!
I did not!! I thought about it, but it didn’t fit.
I need a link to the CHON reference, please…
I don’t think I can – it’s on a screen at NMNH. Actually, it wasn’t on the last time I went looking for it. Oh dear!
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