 Mystery: June 06, 2018 Issue [#8938] |
  Mystery
This week: Blinded me with science! Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week: "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."
~Albert Einstein |
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If asked to imagine a person who solves mysteries for a living, most people would think of detectives or police officers. While most mystery stories involve either professional or amateur detectives, scientists also solve mysteries, and can be great characters for mystery stories.
Examples of authors who base their stories on science and scientists include Robin Cook, Kathy Reichs, and Patricia Cornwall.
The word "scientist" brings to mind people in white coats in a lab filled with chemistry equipment. While all scientists may not be as cool as Indiana Jones or Abby Sciuto, we aren't all nerds with pocket protectors or slide rules either. Many scientists seldom work in a lab, or wear lab coats. I've spent most of my time as a biologist as a "field mouse" collecting samples of invertebrates and plants for the "lab rats" to analyze. If you do use scientists as characters, avoid cliches like the "mad scientist." Most of us aren't that mad, just a little eccentric!
Advances in forensic science have made scientists and essential part of criminal investigation. Many cases could not have been solved without DNA analysis and other forensic techniques.
Important scientific discoveries are often worth billions of dollars and will bring fame to those who developed them. Anything worth that much is a magnet for crime. Imagine a researcher who developed a cure for cancer or found an economical way to turn trash into fuel. Now imagine unscrupulous competitors who long to suppress this discovery or possess it for themselves. Now imagine the scientist who developed it has disappeared. Instant mystery!
If you use science as part of a mystery story, be sure you portray it accurately. Do some research of your own on the problems your scientists are trying to solve and the techniques they use. Your story doesn't have to read like a textbook, but make sure you portray any of the science that is used as an important plot point accurately. For example, if a lab test takes several days in the real world, don't have your characters complete it in ten minutes.
Something to try: write a mystery story with a scientist as the main character.
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