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Scientists Turned Authors

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By Chris Woolston

Good scientists are endlessly fascinated with their own work. Catch them in the right mood, and they'll talk for hours about pack-rat middens or plate tectonics or whatever it is that fills their day. There was a time, for instance, when I was obsessed with algae and nitrogen cycles. I was a real hit at parties.

As scientists get deeper into their careers, they get more and more entangled in their chosen subject. Almost inevitably, a thought begins to creep into their heads: "The entire world deserves to know about this. Someone should write a book." But the thinking doesn't stop there. Before long, "someone" tends to change to "I."

From Scientist to Author

If every scientist who considered writing a pop-science book actually followed through, libraries everywhere would have to build extra wings. While most scientists resist the urge, more and more are taking the plunge into the literary world. A few of their books -- Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel (W.W. Norton, 1997), for one recent example -- become huge hits. But even if a book never reaches a best-seller list, it will have accomplished one thing. Almost without exception, a single popular book will forever transform a scientist's life -- career included.

It took just one book to drive Lee Silver, a professor of molecular biology and public affairs at Princeton University, out of his lab. Mr. Silver was an active and accomplished scientist before writing Remaking Eden (Avon, 1997), a look at the ethics and implications of cloning. The book, written during a sabbatical, consumed him.

"Before I even finished, I knew that I couldn't go back to research," he says. Writing a book, like running a lab, takes an incredible amount of energy. He had to give up one or the other. Today, Mr. Silver is a faculty member at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Cold Shoulder From Colleagues

The shift from research to writing paid off handsomely for Mr. Silver. Remaking Eden earned him a hefty advance and generous royalties. He also won praise from readers and critics alike. From the viewpoint of other scientists however, he might as well have spent his sabbatical making macrame owls. "Writing a popular book gets you absolutely no credit" from other scientists, he says. "It's possible to make a lot of money, but it can't help your scientific career."

Even technical books don't really score many career points, he says. Before Remaking Eden, Mr. Silver wrote Mouse Genetics (Oxford University Press, 1995), a decidedly non-popular book. It was widely acclaimed -- among people who care about mouse genetics, anyway -- but it didn't help him get a raise or secure a single grant, he says.

Christopher Wills, a professor of biology at the University of California at San Diego, has written several books over the last decade, including Wisdom of the Genes (Basic Books, 1989) and The Children of Prometheus: The Accelerating Pace of Human Evolution (Perseus Press, 1998). Predictably, his work generated a chilly response from his colleagues. "They look upon book writing as a lower form of activity," he says.

Spurring Science

Mr. Wills has tried to redeem himself in the lab. He is the rare scientist who has managed to combine writing with active research; in his mind, a winning combination. "Every time I get into a book, new research topics grow out of it," Mr. Wills says.

Putting together a book, he says, helps expose gaps in current knowledge. Writing inspired him to investigate the evolution of sex and the evolution of diseases, two especially fruitful topics. "If I hadn't started writing, I'd still be muddling around with much less interesting projects," he says.

For astronautical engineer Robert Zubrin, writing isn't just a side career -- it's part of a crusade. Mr. Zubrin gained national attention for co-writing The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must (Free Press, 1996), a passionate call for manned missions to our planetary neighbor. The book had an impact far beyond any technical paper, he says.

"I got 4,000 letters from people who read it," he says. Connecting with thousands of supporters made it possible for Mr. Zubrin to form the Mars Society, an advocacy group based in Indian Hills, Colo. Thanks in large part to the book, he has also had the opportunity to testify before Congress about his favorite topic.

Write What You Know

Mr. Zubrin had a taste for writing long before The Case for Mars. In a previous life, he had written a spy novel that was never published. "In its defense, it was no worse than many of the spy novels on the supermarket shelves," he says. Last year, Mr. Zubrin finally fulfilled his novelist ambitions with First Landing (Ace Books, 2001), a book about, what else, the human exploration of Mars. As English teachers have always said, it's best to write about what you know.

For that very reason, young researchers probably shouldn't start thinking about books until they've spent several years immersed in science, Mr. Wills says. In general, junior researchers don't have the experience or knowledge necessary to fill a book, he says. Just as important, they can't afford to throw away countless hours on something that won't advance their careers. "Young scientists need to spend every atom of their being on research and getting published," he says. "You'd have to have rocks in your head to write a book before you had tenure."

Of course, young researchers with aspirations to write can always just give up science completely. I, for one, walked away from the world of algae with a mere master's degree. (In an alternate universe, I might be an associate professor working on my algae epic. All in all, things probably worked out for the best.) I know many other scientists -- including a materials scientist, a geologist, a bobcat researcher, and a molecular biologist -- who became full-time writers or editors. And none of them regretted the move.

Whether they end up writing books or something slightly less prestigious (say, for example, online advice columns), scientific writers play an important role. No matter how much scientists scoff, the popular press has an impact that Science and Nature can't match. Scientists who really want their voice to be heard eventually have to move beyond their small, peer-reviewed circles.

"Darwin published a popular book," Mr. Zubrin says. "If he hadn't, he wouldn't have changed our thinking about evolution. Serious books written for the general public are what change paradigms."