In this story I was actually assigned to write about a specific research study
that had just been published in Science magazine.
And it was on plant biology, and to be very honest, I didn't expect it to be
all that exciting to me because I've never been that interested in plant biology.
But this turned out to be one of my favorite stories ever
because the researcher, Professor Virginia Walbot of Standford,
turned out to be this amazing, fascinating woman.
And for example, she invited me to interview her at her outdoor laboratory.
So there is this corn field in the middle Stanford campus that l didn't know about.
And l met her there at 6 AM in the morning and was just as beautiful,
peaceful outdoor laboratory.
And as we were standing there talking all of the sudden the corn stocks
became blanketed with birds.
And l looked at Dr Walbot and said, what just happened?
So she explained to me that as soon as the temperature hits a certain level,these
little bugs called aphids come out and those draw out the ladybugs and
those draw out the birds.
But it was just this amazing moment.
And so I used all of that as the opener for my piece to draw my reader in.
And then Dr. Walbot was a pioneer for women in science.
And she had some amazing stories about being an early woman in science.
And so my editor and I decided to actually expand the piece to be
about more than just her recent research article, but
also about her experiences as an early woman in science.