Crickets chirping and Collider Whales

Sorry it's been a bit quiet here lately. Things have been busy at the museum, and I've also been writing in other places. In particular, These days I'm a guest blogger at Boing Boing, and on top of that, I'm also having fun starting a children's novel.

This novel has a mouthful of a title, Lizzie Popperfont and the Collider Whale Tale, and it's been partly inspired by my time here at the Natural History Museum. More importantly, there's going to be an underlying and subtle narrative that asks, "What happens to society and culture when only self interested elites are aware of the Scientific Method?" and "What happens if such a culture is allowed to brew for hundreds of years?"

This might sound a little dry, but the basic premise is that many of things we can do with science these days would appear downright magical to someone from the past. More so, if my more unscrupulous characters purposely disguise it in aesthetics that promote the idea of magical, spiritual or divine abilities. Creative text about science is what I like doing best, so I figured why not a children's story?

Oh yeah, there's also a blue whale, and a synchrotron, and a GM organism named Kepler (at least according to some of my notes). I also enjoyed the "I'm a science geek" moment when I used the word Entropy in the first chapter.

Right now, the plan is to write it in full view, so you can read along if you like, although don't forget that it is a work in progress. I happen to be an editing freak, so the text you see will definitely change multiple times, especially after I read it to my own kids. However, my first priority is to just get a reasonable first/second edit down. I do plan on finishing it, and the idea of publishing it proper is there in my mind, but sort of a secondary thing right now.

Anyway, go check it out if you're curious, and you can also let me know what you think.

(Follow David on twitter @dnghub)