Okay, now that I've had my morning coffee+anger, I want to say a few things about story ideas and where they come from.

Last year, I heard that Bloomberg Businessweek was doing a special issue devoted to the periodic table of the elements. (Genius idea.) /1

There would be stories for each element. My immediate thought, as a Yukoner, was: gold! But then I figured that one would be competitive. I went to the public library, checked out a children's book about the periodic table, and read it. That's where I learned about vanadium... /2

...the little-known element that was critical to Henry Ford's creation of the Model T. I pitched and wrote the vanadium story for the issue. /3 https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-periodic-table-elements-issue/#vanadium

A vanadium vendor I spoke to for that story mentioned a new application he was excited about: vanadium redox flow batteries, large-scale batteries to help integrate renewables into the grid.

When I heard about Wired's climate change issue, I remembered the batteries... /4

And I ultimately pitched and wrote a short item for that issue about vanadium batteries, and the role of batteries in decarbonizing the grid more broadly. /5 https://www.wired.com/story/electric-grid-needs-big-vanadium-batteries/?itm_campaign=BottomRelatedStories_ClimateIssue&itm_content=footer-recirc

I'm as surprised as anyone that a childrens' picture book led to two really good assignments! But my stories come from actual books a lot more often than from google, I'd say? So it's worth remembering to crack a book. And don't hesitate to follow from one story to the next. /end