Jump to: Novels • Crossover novels • Films • Plays • TV

Crossover Novels (science fiction or other genres with particularly realistic scientists)

Blood Music

by Greg Bear
Thriller: Genetically engineered cells take over (admittedly in an over-the-top way, but the lab scenes are extremely realistic, hence the book's inclusion here).
Links: Amazon (UK)

Jurassic Park

by Michael Crichton
Thriller: Ancient dinosaur DNA wreaks more havoc (also surprisingly plausibly; one could argue that dinosaurs could be cloned as Crichton describes, and the scientists are believable too).
Links: Amazon (UK)

Timescape

by Gregory Benford
Drama: A Californian scientist in the 60's find signatures of tachyons in a spin resonance experiment which turn out to comprise an urgent subatomic message.
Links: the author chats on LabLit's forums • Amazon (UK)

Cosm

by Gregory Benford
Drama: Amidst academic intrigue, a high-energy physicist creates an unusual object which she suspects could be a pocket universe.
Links: the author chats on LabLit's forums • Amazon (UK)

Twistor

by John Cramer
Drama: A physics postdoc and graduate student access a portal to the dark-matter universe.
Links: Amazon (UK)

The Secret

by Eva Hoffman
Drama: A futuristic account of a cloned young woman which contains a substantial amount of credible detail by a non-scientist who has done her homework.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Survival

by Julie E. Czerneda
Drama: A biologist studying salmon gets captured by alien archeologists for her unique perspectives on migration, featuring startling accurate field biology culture (first part of a series, 'Species Imperative').
Links: Amazon (UK)

His Master's Voice

by Stanislaw Lem
Drama: A large team of scientists try to decode a message from space, featuring a great depiction of how scientific collaborations work.
Links: Amazon (UK)

The Swarm

by Frank Schatzing
Drama: Deep-sea intelligent life seeks revenge on man's careless environmental ways, with realistic scientist characters (and a cameo by a real one).
Links: Our piece by its translator • Amazon (UK)

Red Mars

by Kim Stanley Robinson
Drama: People arrive on Mars and debate the ethics of terraforming, featuring realistically drawn science and scientists (Part 1 of a trilogy).
Links: our author interview • Amazon (UK)

Green Mars

by Kim Stanley Robinson
Drama: The scientist settlers, now technically traitors, rebel against Earth (Part 2 of a trilogy).
Links: our author interview • Amazon (UK)

Blue Mars

by Kim Stanley Robinson
Drama: Mars looks beyond Earth to the future (Part 3 of a trilogy).
Links: our author interview • Amazon (UK)

The Gold Coast

by Kim Stanley Robinson
Drama: A near-future California becomes obsessed with technology and divided by a battle between weapons manufacturers and terrorists.
Links: our author interview • Amazon (UK)

Trouble with Lichen

by John Wyndham
Drama: Two scientists investigating a rare lichen make a remarkable discovery.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Master and Commander

by Patrick O'Brian (and others in the series)
Naval adventure: Chronicles the voyage of a ship with a science-friendly captain and his very scientific ship's naturalist.
Links: our related essay • Amazon (UK)

A For Andromeda

by Fred Hoyle
Drama: Scientists at a radio telescope study to decode a message from space.
Links: Amazon (UK)

The Andromeda Strain

by Michael Crichton
Drama: A bacteriologist helps the government contain deadly microorganisms from space.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Darwin’s Radio

by Greg Bear
Drama: A virologist grapples with a strange and ancient virus that appears to be the next phase of human evolution. (Also its sequel, Darwin’s Children.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Galileo’s Dream

by Kim Stanley Robinson
Drama: Galileo’s historic world is brought to life – but he’s also transported to colonies of Jupiter to troubleshoot.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Films

Creator

(Dir. Ivan Passer)
Romantic Comedy: A grieving scientist (Peter O'Toole) tries to clone his late wife; the most realistic molecular biology labs on film, in our opinion.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Outbreak

(Dir. Wolfgang Petersen)
Thriller: A military softie (Dustin Hoffman), a scientist (Rene Russo), a monkey and a brilliant supporting cast save the free world from viral catastrophe.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Contact

(Dir. Robert Zemeckis)
Thriller: An astronomer (Jodie Foster) risks her career by devoting herself to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Dante's Peak

(Dir. Roger Donaldson)
Thriller: Volcanologist Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) tries to convince a city council that the local mountain is about to blow, with realistic science as well as scientists.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Deep Impact

(Dir. Mimi Leder)
Thriller: Amateur and professional astronomers feature in this realistically realized tale of a comet on a collision course with Earth, starring Robert Duvall.
Links: Amazon (UK)

I Am Legend

(Dir. Francis Lawrence)
Thriller: One scientist (Will Smith) must find a cure for a gene therapy cure gone horribly wrong.
Links: our review • Official Site

The Dish

(Dir. Rob Sitch)
Drama: NASA gets culture shock when it relies on the crew of the Parks radio telescope, Australia, to relay live TV pictures from Apollo 11. Starring Sam Neill.
Links: Official Site

Plays

Blinded by the Sun

by Stephen Poliakoff
Drama: Scientists squabble as cold fusion goes belly-up.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Copenhagen

by Michael Frayn
Historical drama: Mr. and Mrs. Niels Bohr reminisce with Werner Heisenberg over the uncertainty of memory and quantum mechanics.
Links: Amazon (UK)

Les Palmes de M. Schutz

by Jean-Noël Fenwick
Drama/Comedy: Marie and Pierre Curie discover something hot.
Links: IMBD

An Immaculate Misconception

by Carl Djerassi
Drama: A broody scientist finally gets her gloved hands on some sperm.
Links: our author profile • Amazon (UK)

Oxygen

by Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffman
Drama: Scientists both past and present bicker about who discovered the humble gas.
Links: our author profile • Amazon (UK)

Calculus

by Carl Djerassi
Drama: More bickering (this time about mathematics and the dark side of Isaac Newton).
Links: our author profile • Amazon (UK)

Phallacy

by Carl Djerassi
Drama/Comedy: Art vs. science as a bronze statue catalyzes love and a museum spat.
Links: our review • our author profile • Playwright's website

Autodestruct: the ultimate cure for cancer

by Lizzie Burns
Drama: A man lives on through an immortal cell culture of himself.
Links: our playwright interview • Playwright's website

Safe Delivery

by Tom McGrath and Julie Webb
Drama: A story about gene therapy, lab politics and life.
Links: Edinburgh review

Arcadia

by Tom Stoppard
Comedy: Two cultures collide in this classic tale of order, chaos and landscape gardening.
Links: our review • Amazon (UK)

Galileo (Life of Galileo)

by Bertolt Brecht
Historical fiction: The Church battles it out against rationality in this insight-packed masterpiece.
Links: our review • Amazon (UK)

A Disappearing Number

by Simon Burney and Complicite
Historical fiction: A time-bending fantasy account based on the real life of the genius mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Links: Complicite

Proof

by David Auburn
Drama: Catherine struggles to come to terms with the legacy of her mathematician father.
Links: Amazon (UK)

TV Programs

Numbers

USA TV series from CBS
Thriller: An FBI agent recruits his mathematical genius brother to help solve crimes.
Links: our article behind the show's consultants • Official CBS site

CSI (Crime Scene Investigation)

USA TV series from CBS
Thriller: Forensics detectives with refreshingly realistic scenes from labs, featuring scientists who talk (mostly) like real scientists!
Links: Official CBS site

Supernova

British series from the BBC
Comedy: An astonomer flees the weirdness of Britain for an even weirder experience at an observatory in the Australian outback.

Links: Official BBC site

Eleventh Hour

British series from ITV, US series from CBS (Stephen Gallagher)
Drama: A physicist helps the government deal with various scientific crises.
Links: the author chats on LabLit's forums • Screenwriter's Website

ReGenesis

Canadian series from The Movie Network/Movie Central/Shaftsbury Films
Thriller: A crack team of scientists polices the shadowy dealings of the world's biotech and big pharma.
Links: Official ReGenesis site

The Big Bang Theory

British series from the BBC
Comedy: A theoretical and an experimental physicist live across the hall from a blonde waitress.

Links: Offical CBS site

Lab Rats

British series from the BBC CBS
Comedy: Shenanigans at an inept university laboratory.
Links: Official BBC site

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