4/5/05. We are pleased to announce an addition to the program, a talk by the London-based documentary film maker Celia Lowenstein, whose works include Ancient Creature of the Deep for Nova. Details to come.
4/1/05. More homework: For his presentation, "Writing Essays About Science," George Johnson will discuss these pieces:
A Really Long History of Time, New York Times Book Review, February 27, 2005.
Inside the Black Box, to appear in A Field Guide for Science Writers, Second Edition, 2005. (pdf download)
Worshipping in the Church of Einstein (or How I Found Fischbeck's Rule), published in the anthology Secrets of Angels and Demons, edited by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer, December 2004. (pdf download)
4/1/05. We've filled in the last blank on the schedule: Geoffrey West, a particle physicist turned theoretical biologist, will lead a panel of colleagues in a discussion of the unusual kind of science that takes place at the Santa Fe Institute: physicists collaborate with biologists, economists, anthropologists, immunologists, and computer scientists in an attempt to recast problems that cut across academic boundaries. (West, for example, worked with biologists at UNM to devise a new model of the circulatory system.)
We urge you to prepare for the session, which will include, we hope, pointed questions from the audience, by exploring the Santa Fe Institute's web site, and reading some background material. For starters here are articles by two of the instructors:
Of Mice and Elephants: A Matter of Scale, New York Times, Janurary 12, 1999.
Computer 'Life Form' Mutates in an Evolution Experiment, New York Times, November 25, 1997.
Please poke around the Web for more. We'll also post additional material on the site.
3/31/05. We'll be posting the class list, with instructor assignments, by early next week. Meanwhile please remember that we need to receive payment to hold your place in the workshop.
3/10/05. We've received several cancellations and a few more applications. We will regroup next week and get back to everyone who is waiting for a response. Thank you again for your patience.
2/24/05. Just a reminder that to hold your place in the workshop, we will need to receive payment from you (or an email saying it is on the way) no later than 30 days after acceptance. Payment instructions are at http://sciwrite.org/sciwrite/sciwrite.payment.html. And if you must cancel, please let us know right away so we can offer the spot to someone on the waiting list.
2/22/05. We've finished going through all the applications currently on hand. If you haven't heard from us, please let us know by email so we can figure out what went wrong.
We are keeping a few positions open for several more weeks to give us the flexibility to consider any new applications that might arrive. So if you haven't applied, there still is time.
In mid March, we'll reevaluate and see if we can accommodate some of the people on the waiting list. Inevitably there will be cancellations between now and then, so the prospects are pretty good.
Many thanks for your patience.
2/22/05. We've posted a preliminary schedule.
2/19/05. We're continuing to go through applications (we have fifty so far) and have sent out the first batch of acceptances. We plan to do more this weekend and early next week. It takes a while because we try to achieve as good a blend as possible of freelance writers and journalists, scientists edging into writing, staff writers who cover science for universities and research labs, and those who fall into a category of their own. Sometimes in an attempt to even out the mix, we have to put some perfectly good applications on the waiting list. We don't want to fill up too quickly and then have no room for a really stellar person who learns about the program later on. On the other hand, we need to fill enough spaces so the workshop will pay for itself. It's a tough balancing ask. Thanks for bearing with us.
2/11/05. Just a reminder that we are continuing to take applications. We'll be sending out the first acceptances by early next week.
2/10/05. We're very pleased that Denise Grady, the New York Times science writer known for her insightful articles on health and medicine, will be on the faculty.
2/10/05. This is to confirm that we must indeed move up the workshop to early May. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you all for your understanding. All the instructors except, alas, Robin Henig, were kindly able to accommodate us. We'll be naming a replacement shortly with hopes that Robin can join us next year.
2/9/05. We've sent an email to all of this year's applicants asking them to tell us whether moving the workshop up to May 2-7 would prohibit them from attending. We will make a final decision tomorrow.
2/8/05. Because of a scheduling conflict (one of us, George Johnson, just got a fellowship that requires him to be in Cambridge, England in June), we are considering moving up the workshop to early May. We hope this will not be a problem for the many people who have already applied. More details will be posted shortly.
2/2/05. There are 34 applicants so far. We won't begin going through the forms and essays until next week, so there is still time to get into the first batch. After that we will continue to take applications until the workshop is full.
1/26/05. We've received 25 applications so far. Please be sure to apply in the next week or so to be considered in the first round.
12/8/04. We've begun taking applications. Thanks for your patience.
12/4/04. We will begin taking applications as soon as we have decided on the final instructor. Please stay tuned. We should be ready sometime next week.