The Science Writing Fellowships Program provides hands-on laboratory training for young and mid-career science journalists (newspaper, magazine, radio, television and free- lance). It begins with an intensive one-week laboratory course that focuses on cell and molecular biology and continues for up to eight weeks, during which time fellows participate in on-going laboratory projects or in postdoctoral-level courses offered at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Fellows also have the opportunity to participate in environmental and ecological research studies either locally or at the Toolik Lake Research Station in Alaska. Fellows are selected on the basis of demonstrated writing or broadcasting skills and the size and importance of the public they address. Their participation in the program provides them with a better understanding of the complex subject matter of contemporary biological, technological, and environmental science, and with a better insight into who scientists are, what their motivations are, and how they work. Fellows form long- lasting and informative relationships with each other as well as individual scientists. Their ability to inform the public of the place of science and technology in contemporary life and its relation to critical social and political decisions, i.e., to enhance the science literacy of their, is also significantly improved.
