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A shady residential street in Urbana, Illinois.

In Urbana I had the chance to revisit one of my hosts from the first IAP tour (2000). Theo Gray is now, among other things, a noted collector of elements. Looking around his office at parts of his collection, I noticed a small flat-rate postal box ($5) addressed to Theo, in which a friend had shipped a block of solid tungsten. It weighed almost 50 lbs.

By curious coincidence, my hosts at the next stop, in St. Louis, had one of Theo's elegant Periodic Table posters prominently displayed in their house.