This was also my first time working with a photographer--i felt like a real journalist!
I only wish we'd been able to get audio clips to run with the story, but that proved a tall order during the government shutdown!

That's not even mentioning the non-audio-related stuff the LOC folks showed me when I visited the lab, like how they have copies of Machiavelli and Isaac Newton's Principia that are specifically reserved as scientific reference materials!

Also all the wild stuff that Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison dd in the 1800s when they were working on early recording devices!
I talked to a physicist who worked on the optical analysis of Bell's early cylinders--turns out he's familiar with the neutrino work my friend did in grad school?

There was truly so much fascinating material I had to leave on the cutting-room floor, like how scientists can use optical analysis to reconstruct the sounds of old records and wax cylinders for which players simply don't exist anymore (ft. the Amelia Earhart record again)!

This story is one of the most fun and fascinating projects I've ever gotten to do as a science writer! I owe a great deal of it to my colleague Prachi Patel, who first put me in touch with Andrew Davis after she met him at a conference and later helped me figure out how to structure the piece.

Hi, this is the author speaking! I see your point--it's not exactly proper English to use science as a verb. But people (especially younger folks) will colloquially do it (e.g., a pretty famous quote from the Martian). Regardless, I don't see it as talking down to anyone to use a "glib shortcut"

Objectively it is one of the funniest things to have ever happened in any C&EN staff zoom I've witnessed!

Today, we are all material girls