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the culture of science in fiction & fact

Editorials archive

• Editorial

  The League of Imaginary Cats

  A new series inspired by real science
  Jennifer Rohn 1 May 2017
• Editorial

  A growing trend for science in fiction?

  29 new additions to the Lab Lit List!
  Jennifer Rohn 5 March 2017
• Editorial

  Something old, something new...and yet more Darwin

  36 new additions to the Lab Lit List!
  Jennifer Rohn 21 May 2016
• Editorial

  Another welcome booster shot

  19 new additions to the Lab Lit List!
  Jennifer Rohn 6 March 2015
• Editorial

  Ten years of LabLit.com

  A memorable anniversary of an ambitious project
  Jennifer Rohn 6 March 2015
• Editorial

  Are scientists in novels trending?

  43 new additions to the Lab Lit List!
  Jennifer Rohn 16 June 2014
• Editorial

  Post NYT landslide

  29 new additions to the Lab Lit List!
  Jennifer Rohn 7 April 2013
• Editorial

  Sex and drugs and a pack of wolves

  Seven new additions to the LabLit List
  Jennifer Rohn 21 August 2012
• Editorial

  Cures, careers, crushes and crimes

  Ten new additions to the LabLit list
  Jennifer Rohn 31 July 2011
• Editorial

  Science in fiction booster

  25 additions to the Lab Lit List
  Jennifer Rohn 2 May 2010
• Editorial

  Scientists in novels: a growing trend?

  Seventeen new additions to the Lab Lit List
  Jennifer Rohn 8 September 2009
• Editorial

  LabLit - worth a listen

  Our podcast series is launched
  Jennifer Rohn 19 April 2009
• Editorial

  Science as democracy

  How much can, and should, non-scientists shape the research agenda?
  Jennifer Rohn 4 May 2008
• Editorial

  A day in the life: scientists meet writers

  Will this latest forum inspire more lab lit fiction?
  Jennifer Rohn 21 October 2007
• Editorial

  MyLab

  Nature Network London launches
  Jennifer Rohn 25 March 2007
• Editorial

  Dumbed down

  On the downplaying of science in the newspapers
  Jennifer Rohn 14 May 2006
• Editorial

  The Waterstone’s Challenge, Part Two

  Can consumers be enticed to buy ‘lab lit’ fiction? All is revealed!
  Jennifer Rohn 5 February 2006
• Editorial

  The White Scourge

  Are iPods changing lab culture?
  Jennifer Rohn 22 October 2005
• Editorial

  Prove it

  A rant on the evolution of emotions reveals core misconceptions
  Jennifer Rohn 25 September 2005
• Editorial

  The Waterstone's Challenge

  LabLit asked a major bookseller to consider profiling "Lab Lit" novels as an experiment in selling a new "genre" – and they were up for it!
  Jennifer Rohn 24 April 2005
• Editorial

  Welcome to LabLit.com

  Our lights are now on!
  Jennifer Rohn 7 March 2005

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• Coming soon...

  • He’s just too French!

    New fiction from Helen-Frances Pilkington

• Past highlights

  • After the Delhi rapes, a female scientist from India speaks out

    Professional women in India have to work in fear - when will it change?

  • Live long and prosper: a brief encounter with Aubrey de Grey

    Akshat Rathi meets the man who wants to abolish aging

  • A lab wager goes horribly wrong: The 50% Sleeper by Tal Yarkoni

    Humorous fiction from the LabLit short story series

  • The flying laboratory: stalking the shrinking ice of Antarctica

    Scientist Seelye Martin reports live from an airborne mission

  • Stardom

    Interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson

  • The day after today

    Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson

  • Dr. Flirt

    Can a PhD attract women?

  • Bad cop

    Ben Goldacre defrocks the pseudoscientists

  • Unkind literature

    Lewis Wolpert ponders fictional science bad guys

  • The Glider

    Martin Raff recalls a childhood bust-up

  • Marketing lab lit fiction

    An experiment with Waterstone's

  • Sex in the lab

    What's Kat Arney wearing under her white coat?

• Latest blogs

  • A short poem about N0thing

    rpg  1 May 2017

  • More books! Get reading!

    Jenny  5 Mar 2017

  • Big pharma: the Dark Side?

    Jenny  11 Feb 2017

• In the news

  • Lab lit - a lesser-known literary genre that tries to portray scientists realistically, beyond the classic lab coat stereotypes

    Science in fiction featured in Nature Physics

  • Scientists in space - and beyond

    Jenny talks lab lit fiction with Mariella Frostrup on Open Book, BBC Radio 4

  • The untapped niche is rich in opportunities for originality

    Piece about lab lit fiction in Nature

  • Lab Lit Revealed: LabLit.com's editor interviewed by Robert Crease

    Piece in Physics World

  • In-depth interview of LabLit.com's editor on NPR

    Seven Books (About Scientists) to Get You Through Winter

  • "Lab lit? What’s that? Not to be confused with science fiction, lab lit refers to novels with scientists as central characters"

    NPR discusses LabLit.com and the genre - or lack thereof

  • "[R]research developments have been featuring in novels that depict the world as we know it now."

    Piece on LabLit in Oxford Today

  • "[A] genre of serious fiction with a snappy new name: lab lit...the webzine LabLit.com...has “Lab Lit Lists” for dozens of novels, films, plays and TV shows

    The New York Times likes LabLit.com

  • 'Lab lit' is a chance to show what we're really like

    The New Scientist talks to Jenny

  • Light reading

    LabLit helps judge Diamond's science short story competition

  • Dedicated to "writing about the science environment, stories that take place in the lab"

    51stories.com recommends Lablit.com

  • "A clever website...LabLit.com breaks new ground in its portrayal of science and scientists"

    BioTechniques Webwatch recommends us

  • "Another example of 'lab lit' is Experimental Heart...which I’ll put on my 'to read' list"

    - The Boston Globe gets into science novels

  • "[Scientists] are usually cast as troublemakers and hardly ever get to be true Hollywood heroes"

    Jenny dissects the science behind the movie 'Splice' for BBC News

  • "Science is a great topic for a novel"

    Interview of LabLit's editor in Lab Times

  • A lab lit renaissance?

    Jenny's essay in Nature about why science in fiction seems on the rise

  • "The loveliness of the Lab Lit List"

    Author Michael Byers recommends our collection of science novels

  • "Science is only one side of the story"

    Jenny from LabLit interviews Billy Bragg for Nature news

  • "[Lab lit novels] are not just entertaining tales of biologists at work; they also make the reader think about the unique issues"

    Nature Methods recommends LabLit.com

  • "[One of] 20 great websites that every scientist, engineering, or geek-at-heart ought to know about"

    Baltimore Science News Examiner on LabLit.com

  • "[C]heck out [LabLit.com] for more reasons to welcome science to literature"

    Cell

  • "[W]here literary scientists...can find like-minded people"

    Chemistry World on LabLit.com

  • What is LabLit.com?

    Learn more on the Guardian's 'Science Weekly' podcast

  • "It's a wonderful venture, and a topic of the most resonant importance"

    novelist Richard Powers on LabLit.com

  • "FUN: Still life, with test tube"

    Science magazine recommends LabLit

  • "A light touch and some panache"

    LabLit reviewed by The Biochemist

  • more »