[{"id":312177,"date":"2026-09-24T14:45:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T18:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=312177"},"modified":"2026-09-24T06:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:08:14","slug":"annie-dillard-and-the-writing-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/annie-dillard-and-the-writing-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Annie Dillard and the Writing Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander Chee at The Morning News<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Dear Annie Dillard,<\/p>\n

My name is Alexander Chee, and I\u2019m a senior English major. I\u2019ve taken Fiction 1 with Phyllis Rose and Advanced Fiction with Kit Reed, and last summer, I studied with Mary Robison and Toby Olson at the Bennington Writers Workshop. The stories here are from a creative writing thesis I\u2019m currently writing with Professor Bill Stowe as my adviser. But the real reason I\u2019m applying to this class is that whenever I tell people I go to Wesleyan, they ask me if I\u2019ve studied with you, and I\u2019d like to have something better to say than no.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your time and consideration,
\nAlexander Chee<\/p>\n

In 1989, this was the letter I sent with my application to Annie Dillard\u2019s Literary Nonfiction class at Wesleyan University. I was a last-semester senior, an English major who had failed at being a studio art major and thus became an English major by default.<\/p>\n

As I waited for what I was sure was going to be rejection, I went to the mall to shop for Christmas presents and walked through bookstores full of copies of the Annie Dillard boxed edition\u2014Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, American Childhood, Holy The Firm\u2014<\/em>and the Best American Essays of 1988<\/em>, edited, yes, by Annie Dillard. I walked around them as if they were her somehow and not her books, and left empty-handed.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t buy them because if she rejected me, they would be unbearable to own.<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander Chee at The Morning News: Dear Annie Dillard, My name is Alexander Chee, and I\u2019m a senior English major. I\u2019ve taken Fiction 1 with Phyllis Rose and Advanced Fiction with Kit Reed, and last summer, I studied with Mary Robison and Toby Olson at the Bennington Writers Workshop. The stories here are from a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312179,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312177\/revisions\/312179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":312173,"date":"2026-09-24T13:45:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T17:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=312173"},"modified":"2026-09-24T06:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:02:13","slug":"claude-discovers-a-novel-enzyme-system-with-crispr-like-repeats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/claude-discovers-a-novel-enzyme-system-with-crispr-like-repeats.html","title":{"rendered":"Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Anthropic<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"Today, we\u2019re sharing early results from one of our first research programs, in which Claude autonomously discovered a novel enzyme system that is associated with an array of DNA repeats, a pattern reminiscent of CRISPR. Although we don\u2019t yet know its function, the system that Claude discovered has a set of characteristics that have only ever been found together in a handful of other systems, all of which are programmable and perform operations like cutting, copying, and pasting DNA. Beyond CRISPR, which has already transformed science and medicine, several other such systems are now in development as promising tools.<\/p>\n

The system that Claude found is based on a reverse transcriptase (RT), enzymes that copy RNA into DNA. While this underlying RT, found in a jumbo phage, had been identified in previous studies, Claude appears to be the first to notice the system\u2019s defining features\u2014an associated array of non-coding DNA sequences and an additional accessory protein of unknown function.<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Anthropic: Today, we\u2019re sharing early results from one of our first research programs, in which Claude autonomously discovered a novel enzyme system that is associated with an array of DNA repeats, a pattern reminiscent of CRISPR. Although we don\u2019t yet know its function, the system that Claude discovered has a set of characteristics that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312176,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312173\/revisions\/312176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":312167,"date":"2026-09-24T12:45:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=312167"},"modified":"2026-09-24T05:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T09:40:24","slug":"dario-amodei-sam-altman-yoshua-bengio-and-others-brief-un-security-council-on-ai-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/dario-amodei-sam-altman-yoshua-bengio-and-others-brief-un-security-council-on-ai-risks.html","title":{"rendered":"Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Yoshua Bengio, and others brief UN Security Council on AI risks"},"content":{"rendered":"