Carnegie Institution for Science

And I actually overlapped with Vera when I was a postdoctoral fellow, the phase you get to when you have a PhD and you're in between like faculty or whatever next stage you get into.

And I was at the Carnegie institution for science in Washington, DC.

And that's where Vera did a significant, amount of her career.

And she was a huge advocate for women in science.

okay.

I was at the Carnegie Institution with Alan Sanchez.

That was a very

interesting time.

the number a billion becomes very relevant to a mental health discussion.

Previously, she was a vice president at Arizona State University, director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institute for Science, and faculty at MIT.

Asteroid 8252, Elkins-Tanton, is named for her, as is the mineral Elkins-Stantonite.

She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

You chaired the science definition team for the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, okay? We'll talk more about that if we have time.

You're also on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Institute for Science.

Carnegie, isn't that the same group where Edwin Hubble worked for them? This is a long legacy.

Long and really impressive tradition.

We finally engaged a man who said he knew how to get to the foot of the mountain, so we called him Guide for want of a more appropriate title.

the peruvian spring was now well advanced and the days were fine and clear it appeared however that there had been a heavy snowstorm on the mountain a few days before if summer were coming unusually early it behoved us to waste no time and we proceeded to arrange the mountain equipment as fast as possible our instruments for determining altitude consisted of a special mountain mercurial barometer made by mr henry j green of brooklyn capable of recording only such air pressures as one might expect to find above twelve thousand feet A hypsometer loaned us by the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, with thermometers especially made for us by Green.

A large mercurial barometer, borrowed from the Harvard Observatory, which notwithstanding its rough treatment by Mr. Hinckley's mule, was still doing good service, and one of Green's sling psychrometers.

Our most serious want was an aneroid, in case the fragile mercurials should get broken.

So what they tried to do is duplicate it.

And Carnegie Science put together an experiment to try to duplicate those conditions in the lab.

So they created a diamond anvil, which was about this big.

And then they cut it in two.

This paper is intriguing, he said.

Connell Alexander, a cosmic chemist at Carnegie Science in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study, but he stressed that these specific elements are just one piece of the puzzle, and there are many ways to get an Earth-like and Mars-like mix of volatiles.

Quote, it certainly is not the final answer, he said, but the proposed hybrid model is worth considering.

When it comes to the messy business of making planets, he added, it's good that people take opposing positions and duke it out.