"This question is very important for the entertainment industry: does it matter whether you're right, when you're telling a story to entertain?"
- Adam Summers, interviewed in Nature
This week's issue of the journal features a Q&A with Summers, an expert on fish movement, who advised Pixar for the film Finding Nemo and its upcoming sequel, Finding Dory. A Professor of Biomechanics at Friday Harbor, University of Washington, Summers has grappled with a question at the center of the minds of most lab lit authors when they base their stories around scientific questions and practice: can we bend the truth, and if so, how much fantasy is acceptable?
There is, of course, no correct answer. Some lab lit authors stick religiously to only what is known at the time of writing; some invent plausible aspects that are not out of place in the real world; and some slide away from reality to varying degrees, ultimately moving right out of lab lit into something that we might classify as more speculative, hard science fiction. There is a place for all interpretations, and we at LabLit.com feel comfortable with embroidering reality, simply because that is what all novels do to some extent or another. A least one school kid disagrees, however, and told Summers as much.
Find the entire Q&A by Daniel Cressey here.