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In novels and films, the most common scientist by far is the mad one. From H. G. Wells’s Dr. Moreau to Ian Fleming’s Dr. No to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, scientists are portrayed as evil geniuses unrestrained by ethics and usually bent on world domination. Over the past two years, as I struggled to write my own novel about physicists and their quest for the Theory of Everything, I often worried that I was falling prey to this stereotype myself. It is incredibly difficult to create fictional scientists who are neither insane villains nor cardboard heroes. To faithfully depict the life and work of a researcher, you need to immerse yourself in the details of his or her research, and very few writers have done this task well.
One of the earliest attempts to draw a realistic picture of science was Sinclair Lewis’s Arrowsmith, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1926. The book tells the story of Martin Arrowsmith, a callow Midwestern youth who after long travails throws off the temptations of money, power and fame to pursue a life of solitary medical research. Martin isn’t a very likable character—he’s peevish, disdainful and annoyingly self-important. One gets the sense that even the author doesn’t care for him much. The true hero of the tale is Martin’s mentor, Max Gottlieb, a long-suffering German-American bacteriologist. Dr. Gottlieb provides the novel’s wisest insights: “To be a scientist—it is not just a different job ... it is a tangle of very obscure emotions, like mysticism, or wanting to write poetry.” Arrowsmith also gives readers a fascinating glimpse of microbiology in the early 20th century. To get his facts right, Lewis relied on Paul de Kruif, a bacteriologist and science writer who received 25 percent of the book’s royalties in return for his help.
John Updike’s 1986 novel Roger’s Version features a very different kind of scientist hero: Dale Kohler, a research assistant at a computer lab whose specialty is devising graphics that simulate reality. Dale is a religious young man who becomes convinced that his simulation programs can prove the existence of God. His search for divine signals ends fruitlessly, of course, but Updike’s description of Dale’s late-night vigils at the computer terminal will ring true to anyone who has ever wrestled with software code. Perhaps the best parts of Roger’s Version are the entertaining arguments about science and religion, which are peppered with ideas from cosmology and particle physics. And the book abounds with the gorgeous sentences that make Updike such a joy to read: “His necktie, purple violently interrupted by green, struck the gauche note we expect from scientists. He carried a small paper cone of zinnias, the sort of bouquet young drug addicts sell now from traffic islands.”
A standout among the science novels published in the past few years is Intuition, by Allegra Goodman. The book delves into the hothouse atmosphere of a research institute that is investigating potential cancer treatments. One of the institute’s postdocs devises a genetically modified virus that appears to shrink tumors in mice, but a colleague accuses him of fudging his results. The story’s clever trick is that nobody at the lab is entirely in the wrong; the missteps of the researchers seem to be the result of sloppiness and wishful thinking rather than outright fraud. Instead of presenting a simple morality lesson, Intuition reveals the ambiguous, groping nature of biomedical experimentation: “Science was all about failure, and bench work consisted primarily of setbacks.”
A good work of fiction can convey the smells of a laboratory, the colors of a dissected heart, the anxieties of a chemist and the joys of an astronomer—all the illuminating particulars that you won’t find in a peer-reviewed article in Science or Nature. Novels such as Intuition, with their fully fleshed out characters and messy conflicts, can erase the ridiculously sinister Dr. No cartoons. And most important, these books can inspire readers to become scientists themselves.
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Add CommentWhat about Indiana Jones or the paleontologist from the Jurassic Park movies? They certainly aren't bent on world domination. Mr. Alpert gives scientists in films and novels far too little credit. Even the Professor on Gilligan's Island was the voice of reason as well as the fount of knowledge. By ignoring the vast array of scientists in literature and films, Mr. Alpert sets up a straw man to knock down to make his point. For those of us involved in the science of rhetoric, it is recognized as one of the oldest tricks in the book.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI happen to know a great physicist and personable man called Professor Geoffrey Chew [Berkeley US]. Geoffrey is now 84 and is still actively working on quantum cosmological theories. He is a perfect candidate for a work of 'faction'. Geoffrey started his career at Los Alamos, a controversial topic in its own right. Today he expounds theories that attempt to unify the scale of measurement ['space-time slices'] from the nana-subatomic to the vast cosmological level. Geoffrey is a great fan of Feynman paths! He recognises that string theory has had its day. Anyway I shouldn't really be speaking for him, but if you want to know more, please feel free to e-mail me : anna@cosmic-cherry.com or call my UK cell : 07817 046996. Best wishes
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnna Cherry
You don't seem to have looked very hard for these novels. The only science fiction you mention is Wells' and then you dwell on his protagonists who were antisociety. One has to wonder if something is wrong with your sampling mechanism? Consider either E. E. Smith or George O. Smith, both of whom portrayed scientists in the most positive light, such as Richard Ballenger Seaton or Sir Austin Cardynge. Even today it is almost impossible to pick up an issue of Analog without finding at least one story/novel segment that depicts scientists in a positive and reasonably accurate light.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTry "Zig Zag" (by José Carlos Somoza). This is a string theory novel at its best, with many physicists at the forefrunt of the action. It has the intrigue of a Dan Brown novel mixed with the science of Hawking and Brian Greene. You can read the prologue here: http://qgeek.blogspot.com/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey didn't mention the Crichton books because he doesn't agree with their views on environmentalism - therefore he is now a pariah.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe lab lit website (lablit.com) features many novels and other fictoinal writing on a scientific theme, often (but not always) by scientists.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne recent best-seller is The Swarm by Frank Schätzing.
And, more recently, A Version of the Truth by Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack; The Gift: Discovery, Treachery & Revenge by Jon Kalb; and The Expeditions by Karl Iagnemma.
See Nature's book-review section for other examples of fiction/science books.
alan lightman's novels, "einstein's dreams" and "good benito" are excellent books about scientists.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCheck out "Stem Cell Symphony" on amazon.com for a quasi-true tale of how iPod music activates neural stem cells. Written by a scientist/science writer. Me. Ricki Lewis
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI highly recommend you look at "Stem Cell Symphony" on Amazon.com. It has a solid grounding in science and how scientists have to deal with various elements of society.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe scientist is made a invention to show the talent for people. The teen scientist is coming and show their talent. They need some topic to show the real scientist. Not your everyday science fair with exploding volcanoes of baking soda or test tubes filled with colored water, this competition requires high-school students to present research, which must have an altruistic application, in front of a judges' panel of scientists, engineers and educators.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn Studio 360, a biologist had similar thoughts about problems of representation of scientists -- but the mad scientist stereotype was not even the biggest problem he saw. http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2008/01/25/segments/92136
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