Real Science Fiction

The wonder of a good novel is the way it uncovers universals through particulars. Having just read Allegra Goodman's Intuition, I was struck by the way her descriptions of a fictional molecular biology lab seemed to describe every molecular biology lab. Or is it just that every lab really looks the same?

"Two to a bench, like cooks crammed into a restaurant kitchen, the postdocs were extracting DNA in solution, examing cells, washing cells with chemicals, bursting cells open, changing cells forever by inserting new genetic material. There was scarcely an inch of counter space. Lab benches were covered with ruled notebooks and plastic trays, some blue, some green, some red, each holding dozens of test tubes. Glass beakers stood above on shelves, each beaker filled with red medium for growing cells. The glass beakers were foil topped, like milk bottles sealed for home delivery. Peeling walls and undercounter incubators were covered with postcards, yellowing Doonesbury cartoons, photographs from a long-ago lab picnic..."

P.S. Intuition is an excellent read, and captures the tedium and ecstasy of the scientific process better than any other novel I know of. If you've ever been faced with some ambiguous experimental results, or stared jealously at someone else's data, then you'll relate to these characters.