In which ‘Lab Lit’ escapes its little box

It’s been many moons since I published an article in Nature featuring my graph illustrating the apparent year-on-year increase in frequency of novels with scientists as central characters – or ‘lab lit‘. The trend had looked compelling, but coming from such sparse beginnings it was difficult to be sure, as the only way was up.

The only way is up?

Twelve years on, is the trend holding up? You bet. Due to my hectic academic existence, I’m sadly more than a year behind in updating the database on LabLit.com, but I don’t need to run the numbers to tell you that this once-rare genre is rare no more. Years ago, my Royal Institution book group struggled to find titles to read each month; now we are spoilt for choice, with suitable novels coming out all the time. In due course I will update the graph, and I confidently expect it to show exponential growth.

Part of the trend has seen science transcend its ‘normal’ intellectual/arty/historical boundaries and invade territories that delight me. Case in point is the increasing frequency of the glorious mash-up of “chick lit” and “lab lit” – spawning deliciously awful back-cover blurbs such as, Jess Davis is a numbers genius, but when it comes to love she’s had to accept there is no magic formula (Christina Lauren, The Soulmate Equation).

Chick lit meets lab lit

And why not have a bit of romance in the lab? A lot of published lab lit has been, for want of a better description, terribly worthy and too esoteric to interest a wider swathe of people. But once your story has made you a Tik Tok sensation (as for Ali Hazelwood and The Love Hypothesis), you know your geeky cult classic fringe element is going mainstream.

And that’s all I’ve ever wanted.