Field of Science

Writing Science: Fact in Fiction

Can you communicate science via fiction? What are the risks? the benefits? Are there signals in a fiction piece that mixes fact and fiction that help you sort? Should there be?

Writing Prompt
Write a (very) short story using the following three words: planet, curry, madman. Don't like these words? Generate a set using a random word generator.

Reading
  • "A Little Heart" Baruch, Jay. Fourteen Stories: Doctors, Patients, and Other Strangers. Kent State University Press, 2007.
  • "Dissections" Baruch, Jay. Fourteen Stories: Doctors, Patients, and Other Strangers. Kent State University Press, 2007.
  • Rothman, Claire Holden. The Heart Specialist. Cormorant Books, 2009. Ch. 13
  • "Carbon: Part One" by Justina Robson and Andrew Bleloch in Ryman, Geoff. When It Changed: 'Real Science' Science Fiction. Comma Press, 2010
  • "Moss Witch" by Sara Maitland and Jennifer Rowntree in Ryman, Geoff. When It Changed: 'Real Science' Science Fiction. Comma Press, 2010
  • "Without a Shell" by Adam Marek and Vinod Dhanak in Ryman, Geoff. When It Changed: 'Real Science' Science Fiction. Comma Press, 2010
  • “A History Lesson” Robert Scherrer, Nature, 469, 574 (2011).
  • “A Question of Breeding” Jeff Hecht, Nature, 453, 562 (2008).
  • “All of Me” Ed Rybicki, Nature, 454, 1028 (2008).
  • “The Last Laboratory” John Gilbey, Nature, 469, 126 (2011).

Photo is from Wikimedia.

2 comments:

  1. There's more examples of real science being incorporated into fiction here:

    http://www.commapress.co.uk/

    Scroll down to 'science and the short story'

    NB Comma are the publishers of When It Changed, ed. Ryman. Not Carcanet as listed here.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry, my library database had it wrong, fixed in both spots now!

    ReplyDelete


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