Lab lit

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Realistic fiction about scientists

title: "Lab lit" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["literary-genres", "fiction-about-science"] description: "Realistic fiction about scientists" topic_path: "general/literary-genres" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_lit" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Realistic fiction about scientists ::

Lab lit (also "lablit") is a loosely defined genre of fiction, distinct from science fiction, that centers on realistic portrayals of scientists and science as a profession.

Definition

Unlike science fiction, lab lit is generally set in some semblance of the real world, rather than a speculative or future one, and it deals with established scientific knowledge or plausible hypotheses.{{cite journal | author = Rohn, Jennifer |date=January 2006 | title = Experimental Fiction | journal = Nature | volume = 439 | issue = 19 | pages = 269 | doi= 10.1038/439269a| doi-access = free :"Lab lit is not science fiction, and in my opinion it’s not historical fiction about actual scientists (though some fictionalized biographies do appear on the list). Instead, in the Web site’s words, it “depicts realistic scientists as central characters and portrays fairly realistic scientific practice or concepts, typically taking place in a realistic — as opposed to speculative or future — world.'"{{cite journal | author = Bouton, Katherine |date=December 3, 2012 | title = In Lab Lit, Fiction Meets Science of the Real World | journal = New York Times | pages = D2 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/science/in-lab-lit-fiction-meets-science-of-the-real-world.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0}}

Prominent examples of lab lit include Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Intuition by Allegra Goodman, Mendel's Dwarf by Simon Mawer, Real Life by Brandon Taylor, and Richard Powers' The Echo Maker and Generosity. | url = http://www.lablit.com/the_list | title = The Lab Lit List - Novels, films, plays and TV programs in the Lab Lit fiction genre | access-date = Sep 2, 2014

History and origins

Works of fiction that incorporate real science into, but are not considered science fiction have also been referred to as "science in fiction." Mary Shelley's Frankenstein his often cited as an early precursor of this genre., but realistic portrayals of science in fiction were relatively rare throughout most of the twentieth century. However, a notable example from the 1950s is Isaac Asimov's A Whiff of Death, as well as examples from the beginning of the current upsurge include Cantor's Dilemma by Carl Djerassi.

The term "lab lit" was coined by Jennifer Rohn in an essay in 2005, along with the launch of the Lablit website. The term began to appear in the cultural pages of science magazines during the first decade of the 21st century{{cite web | url = http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/26533 | title = Physics World | url = http://www.annlingard.com/ | title = Ann Lingard's website | author = Rohn, Jennifer |date=June 2010 | title = More lab in the library | journal = Nature | volume = 465 | issue = 7298 | pages = 552 | doi= 10.1038/465552a| doi-access = free

References

References

  1. Cookson, Clive. (2009-05-23). "The real lab rats". Financial Times.
  2. Djerassi, Carl. "Science in Fiction ist nicht Science Fiction: Ist sie Autobiographie?" ''Fiction in Science – Science in Fiction,'' Ed. Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler. Wien: Verlag Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1998
  3. Julie Maxwell, 'The Rise of Lab-Lit', ''Oxford Today'' 26 (2014) p. 35
  4. Jennifer Rohn, [http://www.lablit.com/article/1 Editorial: Welcome to LabLit.com. Our lights are now on!] 7 March 2005 (accessed Sept. 2, 2014)
  5. Mawer Simon. “Science in Literature.” ''Nature, 434'' (2005): 297-299
  6. "The power of fiction; Why do so many scientists secretly despise the novel, when a novelist's imaginative strengths can help us understand 21st-century science?" ''New Scientist,'' August 25, 2007
  7. Haynes, Roslynn D.. (2014-06-10). "Whatever happened to the 'mad, bad' scientist? Overturning the stereotype". Public Understanding of Science.

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literary-genresfiction-about-science