This morning, on friend and author Amy Rogers’ website, Sciencethrillers.com, I found the link to a great article by New York Times bestselling author James Rollins. Rollins writes science thrillers, and the article, Turning Science Into Fiction, details a tour he took of Fermilab, near Chicago, the conversations he had with physicists there, and how he turns such information into riveting stories like his most recent novel, The Eye of God.
The article holds points of interest for writers of all sorts. When Rollins sat down with a group of Fermilab physicists, his question was, “Tell me what scares you about your research, what keeps you up at night?” Not only did the answers become central to The Eye of God, but they hold great interest to me as a student of Eastern thought.
All religions hold that the world we perceive with our senses hides much of what is really real, but according to Rollins, his conversation with these scientists centered on “the insubstantiality of the physical world.” He gives this quote he discovered after his visit:
“If you remove all the space within the atoms making up the human body, every person that’s ever lived would fit inside a baseball.” – Brian Greene, physicist
Beyond such ultimate pondering, Rollins’ article is full of details on his research which should be of interest to any novelist who wonders how much one needs to learn of an esoteric topic to be able to tell a convincing story.
I highly recommend this article, and for more of the same, Sciencethrillers.com, which you will find in the link above and on my blogroll.
The First Gates 
Nice article. Thanks for passing it along.
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Yes, some of it, like everyone-fits-in-a-baseball, was definite “Ow wow!” stuff!
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Hi Morgan. Rollins is one of my favorite authors!
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Hi Patty,
Rollins will be the guest speaker at the California Writer’s Club lunch, Sept. 21, fom 11-1. Location is the Cattleman’s Restaurant off Hwy 50, just east of Hazel. Cost is $12 for CWC members, $15 for others. Here’s the brochure -http://www.cwcsacramentowriters.org. If you are interested in going, you should immediately RSVP to Steve Liddick (his email is in the notice). Because of the expected turnout, it’s the only way to be sure of getting a seat. I plan to be there, and it sounds like you would enjoy it too!
– Morgan
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Hi, Morgan, I came to your blog via Rosi Hollinbeck’s. This is such an intriguing idea. I love the idea of science and Eastern thought overlapping; the “insubstantiality” of the perceived world. This sounds like a book I would enjoy.
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Hi Elizabeth, welcome!
It sounds intriguing to me too. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a signed copy this weekend. Rollins will be the featured speaker at this month’s local Calif. Writer’s Club lunch (http://www.cwcsacramentowriters.org). I don’t know if you’re in a geographical position to “pop in,” but I expect his visit will lead to another post.
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