bittelmethis.bsky.social
Wild animal & National Geographic Books author ('26). Latest science-y kids' book: MOUNTAIN ('24). Science Writer @ Nat Geo, NYT, WashPo, etc. Prev: KSJ @ MIT, Nat Geo Explorers. Always looking for story tips about science/animals! He/him.
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You could become part of this story, btw.
All it takes is a cheek swab. And somewhere down the line, you could be standing next to someone you'd never met before, someone full of your atoms. And then maybe you'll think of that thread written by the weird animal guy. 🧪
www.nmdp.org/get-involved...
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I'll never forget the sound of the audience clapping after the talk was over and I snapped out of my presentation-giving-fugue-state and remembered to reveal that Mike and Dinie were actually there, sitting in the front row.
What a truly special experience. 🧪
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I would like to give a huge thank you to @radfordu.bsky.social for giving me the chance to spend some time on this idea, and also to Mike and Dinie for driving six hours roundtrip on a Tuesday afternoon to come see Jess and me. 🧪
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You are you, but also me, Mike Dudley, Aristotle, and Taylor Swift.
You are dinosaurs and mountains.
You are dust blown off of the Sahara Desert.
You are comets, lava, and clover. 🧪
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I know, it feels like we are more disconnected than ever, both from nature and wildlife but also from each other, but no matter who you are, or what you believe, or who you love, or what side of some imaginary line you live on, you are bound up in this great swirling atomic potluck. 🧪
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Your teeth are made out of calcium forged in dying stars, and 10% of your weight is made up of hydrogen atoms that came into existence shortly after the Big Bang. 🧪
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But at the atomic level, the human body is like an Amazon warehouse, parcels coming & going 24 hours of the day, 7 days of the week. With every breath, you add & expel atoms that once belonged to the people sitting next to you, but also the redwoods in California & plankton in the South Pacific. 🧪
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But the idea that, for the last decade & some change, there has been a guy walking around Richmond, VA w/a whole bunch of my atoms never left me. And what's weirder is that this exchange is not actually all that uncommon. (I mean, yes, it's rare to find someone that you can share bone marrow with.)🧪
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We were complete strangers at the time, connected only by a weirdly specific similarity in our human leukocyte antigens. Well, as you can see, it worked! And we've since been able to meet each other and become friends. Here's a photo from our first meeting, back in 2012. 🧪
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One of the main characters in this story is Mike Dudley, who along with his wife, Diana, were actually able to come hear the talk. As some of you may remember, Mike & I are blood brothers. In 2008, he received a transplant of my bone marrow in an attempt to survive acute myeloid leukemia. 🧪
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Thank you!
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Thanks, Tony!
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Thanks, Jeremy! You may be a little outside my frame here though.
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Thanks, Jason! What's a good email address for you?
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This was all for a story about starlings. They caused the crash Hale was in -- which remains, to this day, the deadliest accident resulting from a bird strike in world history.
It's one of my all-time favorite pieces. Here's a gift link if you'd like to read it! 🧪🦉
www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/s...
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When Hale finally got back on shore, she says she was the coldest she'd ever been and didn't think she'd ever get warm again.
Did you stay in the airline industry after that, I asked her.
"About two weeks, I went back to flying," said Hale. "The thing to do is to get back with it."
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On her refusing help while others were in need: "They kept coming at me. And I kept saying no, go get that one, I could see them in the water where they couldn't see some of them. And I would point them towards someone and they'd go pick them up. Go get that one, go get that one."
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"They threw down whatever they were doing. They ran for boats, canoes, dinghies, anything they could find, threw it in the water...and they came to us and they rescued people as fast as they could get them. And if it hadn't been for them, I don't think any of us would have survived," said Hale.
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Despite saving many people herself, Hale says the real heroes of the day were the people working out in the bay.
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"And we got a got a life jacket on the other flight attendant and got one for myself... and the few passengers I found in the water. I got a life jacket on them," remembers Hale.
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"It was the very first of April and they had just had a bad storm the weekend before, cold ice and rain, everything, and the water was just freezing," said Hale. "But anyway we got in that in that water."
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Thanks, Davey!
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Thanks, Zen!! Will message
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How are you playing it?! I’m considering buying a pc just so my 10yo can fight in the Tiberium wars
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So. Much. Derp.
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I don't think they fully know, but that would be the assumption. Lot of stress moving all that distance across pressure, into an environment it's not suited to... etc.
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But a wee blorb!
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Yup 🥹