P1: FDS March 22, 2003 16:52 Annual Reviews AR182-FM by BROWN UNIVERSITY on 10/27/10. For personal use only. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2003.31:1-74. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org G.J. Wasserburg 22 Mar 2003 17:6 AR AR182-EA31-01.tex AR182-EA31-01.SGM LaTeX2e(2002/01/18) P1: IBC 10.1146/annurev.earth.31.100901.141409 Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2003. 31:1–74 doi: 10.1146/annurev.earth.31.100901.141409 Copyright c 2003 by G.J. Wasserburg First published online as a Review in Advance on December 2, 2002 ISOTOPIC ADVENTURES—Geological, Planetological, and Cosmic G.J. Wasserburg The Lunatic Asylum, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125; email:
[email protected] If you are smart and work hard, you will get by, if you are lucky. Advice from Prof. Andy Lawson to a young student. INTRODUCTION When asked to write a summary of my professional life, I had no notion of how difficult it would be. There is the form and the substance, the remembrances and the reality, the discipline and the hope, the frustration of not finding a way, and the satisfaction of finding a trail. Of all of the experiences, the greatest one, the biggest turn-on, is the rare feeling that one has some understanding of nature. I have had the honor and privilege of receiving the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy from the King of Sweden, but my greatest occasions of excitement came when I thought I had possibly understood something.