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Some sued, some sent smart aleck responses and some refused to answer the email.

“I think it’s funny. Smart aleck, Smart Alex.”

I didn’t actively think of it again, but “you should always look for the limb” became part of my smart aleck’s understanding of the world, a bit of wisdom, never questioned.

Aleck Wang, a marine carbon chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said with the number of ocean-based carbon dioxide removal research projects “booming,” there will likely not be one single solution.

In real life, however, Mr. Jaffee was the opposite of a smart aleck: a genteel, unassuming man whose in-person humor was delivered with a wink, not a cudgel.