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  2. New Fiction Book on Lab Life

New Fiction Book on Lab Life

By apalazzo on March 21, 2006.

I just read this interview with Allegra Goodman, author of the new book Intuition. What is the book about? From the NY Times:

A postdoctoral student at the Philpott Institute in Cambridge, Mass., has an astonishing result: a virus he engineered seems to cure breast cancer in mice.

Now the two lab directors, cautious Marion Mendelssohn and politically savvy Sandy Glass are arguing about what to do. Dr. Mendelssohn wants to take her time and make sure the results are correct before discussing them; Dr. Glass wants to make his move now, before a competitor hears about his work and beats him to it.

"We can wait until we've dotted every 'i' and crossed each 't,' " Dr. Glass tells her. "We can wait until we reproduce it all and submit it to Nature. We can make sure every research note coming from the lab is of archival quality. Or we can seize the moment now. We can announce results that are still preliminary."

"Results that may be incorrect," Dr. Mendelssohn replies.

"Right," says Dr. Glass. "We can risk that they're incorrect and stake our claim before someone else does."

OK this sounds excellent!

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science & society

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It does sound interesting -- a novel about lab life? Of course, the real test will be in the execution...

I've stuck it on my amazon wishlist, maybe once I finish this scary stack of unread books on my table I'll have to order it.

PZ's comment brings up this question. What books, which have already been purchased, are on your to-read list? Here's mine (in no particular order):

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Birth of the Mind
Demon Haunted World (rereading for school project)
Theory and Mind
Of Minds and Molecules
Science and Its Ways of Knowing

Maybe I should stop buying books for while. I'm sure I have some psychological disorder because I also buy cds faster than I can listen to them.

Speaking of scientists in fiction, microbiologists may enjoy the recently published "An Imperfect Lens" by Ann Roiphe. It's set during the 1890s search for the cause of cholera when competition between German and French microbiologists was on par with US/Soviet space exploration in the 1960s