Writer, The New York Times, working on contract from Santa Fe, January 1995 to present.
Staff Editor, The Week in Review, The New York Times, December 1986 to October 1994.
Special Assignment Reporter, The Minneapolis Star, October 1979 to April 1982.
Reporter, The Albuquerque Journal, June 1975 to June 1977.
Co-founder and co-director of The Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop, June 1996 to present.
AAAS Science Journalism Award, 2014.
Royal Society Book Prize, 2014 shortlist (for "The Cancer Chronicles").
Judge, Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, 2009 and 2010.
Science Writer in Residence, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, 2006, Santa Barbara, California.
Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science & Religion, 2005, Cambridge, England.
Royal Society Science Book Prize, 2001 shortlist (for "Strange Beauty").
Pen Center USA-West Literary Award, 2000 shortlist (for "Strange Beauty").
Best American Science Writing 2000, edited by James Gleick.
Science Writer in Residence, University of Wisconsin; Madison, April 2000.
AAAS Science Journalism Award, 1999.
Royal Society Science Book Prize, 1997 shortlist (for "Fire in the Mind").
Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 1996 shortlist (for "Fire in the Mind").
New York Times Publisher's Award, 1991.
Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellow, 1984.
Special Achievement in Nonfiction, PEN Los Angeles Center, 1984 (for "Architects of Fear").
Best Spot News Story. Albuquerque Press Club, 1976.
The Cancer Chronicles. Knopf, 2013. Vintage paperback, 2014.
The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments. Knopf, 2008. Vintage paperback, 2009.
Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe. James Atlas Books/Norton, 2005. Norton paperback, 2006.
A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer. Knopf, 2003. Vintage paperback, 2004.
Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics. Knopf, 1999. Vintage paperback, 2000.
Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order. Knopf, 1995. Vintage paperback, 1996.
In the Palaces of Memory: How We Build the Worlds Inside Our Heads. Knopf, 1991. Vintage paperback, 1992.
Machinery of the Mind: Inside the New Science of Artificial Intelligence. Times Books, 1986. Tempus / Microsoft paperback, 1987.
Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics. Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
"Following the Sun, Moon, and Stars," New York Times Journey to see the South American eclipse in Argentina, June-July 2019.
Annual meeting of the American Osteopathic College of Pathologists, San Diego, October 2018, "The Cancer Chronicles."
New York Times Journey to CERN, Geneva, speaker, October 2018.
Beyond Center, Arizona State University, public lecture, "Why Everyone Seems to Have Cancer," December 2017.
International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer, speaker, December 2017.
New York Times Journey to Chernobyl, speaker, May-June 2017.
Slovenian Research Agency, Ljubljana, Slovenia, symposium for journalists and scientists, December 2016.
New York Times Journey to CERN, Geneva, speaker, September 2016.
Black Mountain Institute, symposium, Las Vegas, November 2015.
Fox-Chase Cancer Center, public lecture, Philadelphia, April 2014.
Wistar Institute public lecture, Philadelphia, October 2013.
National Association of Science Writers annual meeting, Raleigh, N.C., October 2012.
Science Writing in the Age of Denial, symposium at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, April 2012.
Association of Southern University Presidents annual meeting, Santa Fe, N.M., keynote, April 2012.
Burke Museum public lecture, Seattle, Washington, March 2009.
Decade of the Mind conference, keynote, Albuquerque, January 2009.
Harvard Observatory public lecture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 2008.
Town Hall Seattle public lecture, Seattle, Washington, May 2008.
Perimeter Institute public lecture, Waterloo, Ontario, May 2006.
Hayden Planetarium public lecture, New York, November 2005.
Harvard Observatory public lecture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 2005.
Science, Technology and Society Lecture; Institute for Science, Engineering, and Public Policy; Portland, Oregon, May 2004.
Pittsburgh Sci-Tech Festival; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 2004.
Parliament of World Religions; Capetown, South Africa, December 1999.
Santa Fe Institute public lecture; Santa Fe, N.M., November 1998.
Swedish Association of Science Journalists; lecture during Nobel Week; Stockholm, December 1997.
New York Public Library Center for the Humanities; Celeste Bartos Lecture; New York City, October 1996.
Science, Technology and Society Lecture; Institute for Science, Engineering, and Public Policy; Portland, Oregon, December 1995.
Drexel University 100th Anniversary lecture; Philadelphia, 1991.
What Future: The Year's Best Ideas to Reclaim, Reanimate & Reinvent Our Future, edited by Torie Bosch and Roy Scranton. Unnamed Press, 2017.
Know This: Today's Most Interesting and Important Scientific Ideas, Discoveries, and Developments, edited by John Brockman. Harper, 2017.
The New York Times Book of Science: More than 150 Years of Groundbreaking Scientific Coverage, edited by David Corcoran. Sterling, 2015.
The New York Times Book of Physics and Astronomy: More Than 100 Years of Covering the Expanding Universe, edited by Cornelia Dean. Sterling 2013.
The New York Times Book of Mathematics: More Than 100 Years of Writing by the Numbers, edited by Gina Kolata. Sterling, 2013.
My Einstein: Essays by Twenty-four of the World's Leading Thinkers on the Man, His Work, and His Legacy, edited by John Brockman. Pantheon, 2006.
The Field Guide for Science Writers, edited by Deborah Blum, Mary Knudson, and Robin Marantz Henig. Oxford, 2005.
Cosmic Dispatches: The New York Times Reports on Astronomy and Cosmology, edited by John Noble Wilford. Norton, 2002.
When Worlds Converge: What Science and Religion Tell Us about the Story of the Universe and Our Place in It, edited by Clifford Matthews. Open Court, 2001.
The Best American Science Writing, edited by James Gleick, Harper Collins. 2000.
The Science Times Book of Language and Linguistics, edited by Nicholas Wade. Lyons Press, 2000.
Clones and Clones, edited by Martha C. Nussbaum and Cass R. Sunstein. Norton, 1999.
The Science Times Book of the Brain, edited by Nicholas Wade. Lyons Press, 1998.
M.A. in Journalism and Public Affairs, American University, Washington, D.C., 1979.
B.A. in Journalism with a minor in English, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1975.
For more details please see my biographical sketch and list of newspaper and magazine articles.