7/1/99. Thanks to everyone for a wonderful week. (Watch this space for news about the next workshop in June 2000 . . . )
6/16/99. Here is information about Linda Feferman, the filmmaker who will be at the workshop.
6/16/99. The forecast is for afternoon thunderstorms early next week. These are usually brief, but please be prepared.
6/14/99. Please check the class list to ensure that your name and affiliation will appear correctly on your nametag. Let me know about any changes before noon Tuesday.
6/14/99. We've made a few small changes to the schedule. And we'd like to encourage people to bring examples of good and bad science writing to discuss in their groups.
6/11/99. Here is a weather link. It has been very dry, but we might be getting afternoon thunderstorms by next week.
6/9/99. With 10 days to go until the workshop, here are a couple of reminders:
-- If you have a short piece of writing you would like to discuss in
your group, please bring 10 copies.
-- Read the recent articles posted here about the measurement of the universe, so we can
discuss the different approaches in the session on Monday morning.
-- Reread the FAQ.
We're looking forward to seeing you soon.
6/7/99. I've updated the page with links to Hubble stories. Please read them all before the workshop and think about the different approaches. I've also added two cosmology stories that appeared in the Times the following week. We'll also discuss why this development (which I think was far more important) got much less coverage in the press.
5/28/99. Plaza Resolana has indeed managed to scare up an extra room or two, so we may be able to take a couple more people for the workshop (double occupancy only). Inquire first by email.
5/27/99. At one of the workshop sessions, we'll compare how the New York Times, Newsday, NPR, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, CNN, USA Today, and other news organizations covered the story yesterday about the revised estimates of the Hubble constant in cosmology. I've posted a page with links to the various versions of the story. I'm not sure how long the links will survive on the servers, so you might want to mail yourselves copies of the documents (this can be done with your browser) or print them out.
5/25/99. We're full and overflowing, with four people applying for the remaining two slots. We're going to try to accommodate the two extras. In fact, there is a possibility that we might increase the conference size from 40 to 45, though any additional applicants should probably not plan on staying at Plaza Resolana. (See the list of bed & breakfasts in the FAQ.)
5/21/99. There are two out of forty spaces now left.
5/19/99. We've updated the information on shuttles, dropping two and adding another. (A story in this morning's Santa Fe New Mexican suggested that the two deleted services are operating without proper authority.) Sorry for the confusion.
5/18/99. Two more applications and one cancellation leave us with three openings.
5/13/99. We've posted information on shuttles between Albuquerque International Airport and Santa Fe.
5/10/99. Email acceptances have been sent to everyone whose applications have arrived at Plaza Resolana. If you applied but haven't heard from us, please send me an email. There are four positions still open.
5/5/99. Those applying for the remaining few slots can ignore the requirement that full payment be received by May 1. As in the past, we'll take applications until we are full. Because of a cancellation, we still have five openings.
4/28/99. There are now five positions left.
4/23/99. In a few weeks, we'll be sending all applicants a class list. (There are now 8 out of 40 positions still available.) Meanwhile here are some of the institutions that will be represented at the workshop:
Arizona State University
Bell Labs
Burnham Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Columbia University
Dana Foundation
Discovery Channel
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Microcide Pharmaceuticals
Minnesota Public Radio
NASA
Nature Genetics
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oregon State University
U.S. Geological Survey
University of California at San Francisco
University of Kansas
University of Oregon
Vanderbilt University . . .
. . . and a number of free-lance writers and editors.
4/22/99. We've posted more details about the Ferris film that Linda Feferman will discuss.
4/21/99. The allotment of single rooms at Plaza Resolana is now gone. If you want to apply for one, you'll be put on a waiting list. (It's entirely possible that another space or two could open up.) For an alternative, please see the list of bed & breakfasts in the FAQ (which has just been updated).
4/21/99. Please note this addition to the schedule:
Sunday, 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Making a Science Documentary. Freelance film maker Linda Feferman will show rough cuts of the forthcoming public television special she produced with science-writer Timothy Ferris.
4:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Coffee break.
4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Science on the Air and Science in Print. Drawing on the Ferris film, Feferman and the instructors will talk about the different approaches used in print, radio, and TV.
(Laurie Garrett's talk has been moved to Tuesday.)
4/20/99. With about two months to go until the workshop, we are 3/4 full with 10 more openings.
4/13/99. Those of you with a RealAudio player on your computer can listen to the NPR investigative series Richard Harris will discuss at the workshop.
4/7/99. We're at the 2/3 mark now, leaving about 15 more openings.
3/31/99. We have finally lined up the two scientists who will speak at the press conference at the Santa Fe Institute on Sunday, June 20:
-- Dan McShea, a Duke University zoologist, will ask, Does complexity really increase in the biological world . . . or does it just seem that way? For a preview of his ideas, please read this profile: Dan McShea and the Great Chain of Being: Does Evolution Lead to More Complexity? by Frank Zoretich, SFI Bulletin, fall 1996.
-- Duncan Watts, a Santa Fe Institute postdoc and social scientist, will talk about the Small World Phenomenon, which is familiar to anyone who saw Six Degrees of Separation. Any two people on earth, folklore has it, are connected by a human chain of acquaintance with no more than a few links. You know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone else. Strange as the phenomenon seems, Watts and Steven Strogatz, a Cornell University mathematician, have shown that it naturally arises from the mathematical nature of social networks. Even more intriguing, the idea can be applied to understanding other complex systems like networks of computers or power stations, or even neurons in the brain.
3/30/99. We've passed the halfway mark on enrollments. Judging from the number of people who have told us they are applying, we expect to reach 2/3 pretty soon. In the past we've gotten a last-minute rush in April and May to fill out the 40 slots. So there still is time. We urge those who particularly want a certain instructor or need a single room to apply as soon as they can.
3/19/99. The full schedule, still subject to small revisions, has been posted. In response to a survey of last year's students, we are greatly increasing the number of workshop sessions in which students meet in small groups with their individual instructors.
3/17/99. We expect to post the full schedule by the end of this week.
3/10/99. Tomorrow I really am going to pick up applications. Please see the tentative schedule.
3/5/99. I got swamped this week when the copyedited manuscript of my book landed by the front door. I'll go to Plaza Resolana early next week to pick up applications. If anyone needs a decision sooner, please email me. We'll be posting the schedule soon. -- GJ
2/19/99. I picked up all the applications that have come in so far and sent out acceptance notices. -- GJ
2/18/99. I plan to make another run down to Plaza Resolana tomorrow and will get back to the most recent applicants by the end of this week. -- GJ
2/4/99. I picked up the applications yesterday and replied to everyone by email this morning. Please let me know if you sent an application and didn't receive a reply. We still have plenty room.
Yesterday a bulldozer plowed through a fiber optic cable south of here and knocked half of Santa Fe off the Internet. That's why the Web page was inaccessible.
2/2/99. I'll be going to Plaza Resolana this week to pick up the first batch of applications and will get back to everyone by this weekend.