It's pretty great being a Scientific Editor. I get to read and think about science every day while avoiding the ups and downs of bench work. I do miss life in the lab, though, especially the camaraderie and excitement of a new result, but luckily, I've discovered LabLit and this comprehensive list of books with scientists as central characters.

This list has supplied me with plenty of fodder for feeding my nostalgia. LabLit books include some science to contribute to the plot, but unlike science fiction, these novels occur in realistic settings. The themes of LabLit books center on many of the hot topics in science and academia, such as reproducibility, scientific ethics, and gender bias.

Below are the books I've read that best exemplify how LabLit approaches each of these relevant topics.

An Honest Look focuses on Claire Cyrus as she starts a new job at a biotech company in the Netherlands. Claire makes some initial discoveries that don't fit the company's working model, and these results set her on a path of personal and ethical problems. The author, Jennifer Rohn, is a cell biologist (who published a 2014 paper in Current Biology), so the book has a nice mix of scientific details and literary devices. (You can read a more complete review in this 2010 issue of Cell.)

Life by Gwyneth Jones considers the problem of gender bias in the sciences, but it does so with a unique twist. Life tells the story of Anna Senoz, a mid-career scientist who makes a controversial discovery about the sex chromosomes—her sequencing data suggest that the Y chromosome is slowly being transferred to the X chromosome. Anna studies the transferred Y story in secret, as she fears the implications and consequences of her results. The author, who does not have a scientific background, uses the topic of sex chromosome balance as a vehicle to discuss gender discrimination. The subject of sex chromosome imbalance is fascinating field of research (covered in some detail here) that was only starting to come to light when Life was published in 2004.





Allegra Goodman's novel Intuition also focuses on reproducibility and ethics. Set in a fast-paced, ultra-competitive lab at a fictional cancer research institute in Boston's Longwood Medical Area, the book explores why the stakes are so high and what can happen when scientists succumb to the pressure. Goodman spent time in several labs to understand the work environment, which helped her portray the daily life of a researcher and capture many of the typical lab characters.

The LabLit books that I've read really capture the intensity of life in the lab, showing both the camaraderie and the competitiveness. While I enjoy reconnecting to the memories of lab life, I definitely prefer life as an editor.

Do you have any fictional works about scientists to recommend? Let us know in the comments.