A career is often a person's lifework. Many years go by producing a career which, in my case, lasted about half a century. Data accumulation and modeling has changed dramatically during those years. For instance, there were in 1958 only a dozen 14C measurements showing atmospheric 14C variability during the past few hundred years. We now have precision tree-ring measurements spanning more than 11,000 years.
Oxygen isotope ratio measurements of glacial ice follow a similar pattern.
Whereas Dansgaard in 1961 had to work with a few dozen determinations there are now instances where more than ten thousand measurements are available for a single core. Present-day modeling was nearly impossible during the 1950's, given the absence of computers. Once in a while, however, one could get results. In 1959 I was interested in the atmospheric 14C variations and cosmic ray production rate changes tied to the sunspot cycle. A metal sheet, with the sunspot information of the last 400 years carved on its edge was mounted on the axis of a motor and a light beam striking along the edge of the rotating sheet was partly intercepted.