Science writing in beautiful Santa Fe

My science writing mentor at UCR has raved about the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop, and now I'm in Santa Fe to experience it for myself! I'll be blogging about my time here and reflecting about how to write well about science. I think the best part about this workshop will be getting to meet people from diverse backgrounds, not all of whom have taken a straight path towards traditional careers in science. I'm also looking forward to the group critiques of writing assignments. It will be great to gain perspective from other writers and exchange ideas.

Day 1:

My plane landed in Albuquerque after lots of turbulence from strong winds. On the ride from Albuquerque to Santa Fe the car was swaying from all the wind. Scary!

Arrived at the hotel, and in the evening met all the participants at dinner. After eating we sat around the room in a circle and a daunting icebreaker was presented to us: we would each introduce ourselves and repeat the names of everyone who had spoken before us. There were maybe 40 or 50 of us? You can imagine how the last person in the circle felt. I'm not one to memorize names, which is part of the appeal of being a physics major. No complicated biology names to memorize - if you forget an equation, just look it up in the book. But we were all able to get through everyone's names.

I was surprised that so many people were torn between choosing to pursue science or the humanities. I'm used to hearing engineers talk about how they hate writing, and English majors will talk about how they don't get along with science. Of course this is not always the case, but there were so many people in the room who had a penchant for both fields.

During introductions someone gave an analogy about the uncertainty of choosing a career path: "It's like you want the toast to land butter-side up. Except the toast is attached butter-side up to the back of a cat that's falling, and the cat is hovering in mid-air." This description is spot on.