Book Review author

Fictional portrayals of scientists conducting cutting-edge research are rarely found on book shop shelves. On page 128, Jennifer Rohn, a cell biologist at University College London and editor of an online forum called LabLit.com dedicated to the genre, reviews three recent novels that feature scientists as protagonists. She spoke to Nature about her efforts to improve scientists' fictional standing.

What is LabLit.com and why did you start it?

While doing my PhD, I read a novel about laboratory scientists and was bothered that I couldn't easily find other books like it. You can read fiction about everything else, but scientific research as a topic is rare. Yet science is rife with discovery, competition, jealousy, passion and life-threatening diseases — all makings of a good story. In 2005, I started LabLit.com to generate interest in fictionalized science by shedding light on scientists in their natural habitat.

What does a good work of lab lit need to offer?

Any work of fiction must be a great story with great characters. But I do love it when an author is also able to go into detail about science in an unobtrusive way.

Was it a challenge to review three books?

The challenge was finding a common theme. Two of the books focus on nature — often the subject in instances where science does feature in literature. A Version of the Truth by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack is a chick-lit book set in a university animal behaviour department; The Expeditions by Karl Iagnemma follows a naturalist expedition of the American west in the nineteenth century.

Do you think publishers are prejudiced against publishing fiction about science?

Yes. Most publishers balk at the idea of publishing a fictional book about science. For example, the book I reviewed with the most scientific detail — The Gift by Jon Kalb, which delves into the ruthless world of hominid fossil hunting — was not traditionally published. It is available print-on-demand by the author. I think for this genre there is considerable opportunity for print-on-demand.

What are some lab lit classics?

Cantor's Dilemma by Carl Djerassi, inventor of the contraceptive pill, which is about a Nobel winner falsifying data. And As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem, which I think could entertain even the biggest sciencephobe. It's about a physicist who discovers a black hole and falls in love with it, and offers a good sense of how scientists can obsess about their topics.