Science for EveryoneScience for Scriptwriters
Scriptwriters visit the CSC
The scientist's experience of the media is all too often through journalists or news reporters on the hunt for a good story. The perspective of the scriptwriter is more expansive, an engaging script comprising more than a few lines about the latest research findings. The PAWS Drama Fund and Epigenome recently joined forces to bring scientists face-to-face with the creators of series such as Casualty, Medics, The Vet and Peak Practice.
A select group of scriptwriters were invited to the CSC to find out what makes scientists tick in a bid to infuse TV drama with science. Writers were treated to a tête-à-tête style rendez-vous with lab leaders from both the Epigenetics and Development Section and the Genomic and Molecular Medicine Group, including a live demonstration of how to transplant genetic material from a human cell into a mouse embryo.
How? Why? A cell — and this is really simple but I saw it with my own eyes — is alive. Alive. What is that? I learnt about the pursuit of truth. I talked to people whose dedication was frankly humbling. I learnt that science is mostly hard work, repetition and incredible patience, not just the startling discoveries that set the world talking — though it's that too. I met people who shared a brief but so generous glimpse into their knowledge, their world and their lives that opened doors to understanding I hadn't even known were there. With every answer came a new question. I felt, for a moment, that I was standing at the frontier of human knowledge, that what was taking place there under the diligent care of those scientists would shape the world to come. It would change the way we understand ourselves as living creatures and it would introduce profound changes to the biological technologies that will increasingly determine the boundaries of human experience in terms of what can and cannot be done.
There are ethical issues too, along with philosophical, moral and even theological questions. There is little that this research does not or will not touch. It is about life, about how we are and who we are. It is the biggest picture and the smallest detail. Why is a greenfly a greenfly, a sneeze a sneeze? It's all pretty much awesome when you look it that way. So many thanks. It isn't every day the world appears to be such a remarkable place. Maybe it should be. I guess my son had it right all along!"
Robin Mukherjee, Freelance scriptwriter
Credits: Peak Practice, The Bill, EastEnders, Dance With The Wind
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
Arthur C. Clarke
"I was actually rather scared at the prospect of meeting and talking to scientists. Science as a career is a path far removed from anything I know, and my very hazy ideas of what it actually involves have been cobbled together over the years from entirely fictional sources (white coats; cold, clinical spaces and something nasty gestating in a Petri dish).
I was worried that I wouldn't understand, that I would be wasting people's time — that I would look stupid. I mean, 'What do you actually do all day?' seems an offensively bald question to ask anyone.
In the event I was blown away by it all — Tristan Rodriguez showing me blue-dyed cells in a mouse embryo and talking about how their position indicates what mouse-part they will ultimately become. His colleague at lunch talking about those rare 'Eureka!' moments; or the triumph you feel when the experiment has worked and you are proved right; watching genetic material from a human cell being transplanted into a mouse embryo with an impossibly tiny, glass needle. And then all the mundane things mixed in with the magic. The fact that those custom made glass needles are held in their case with blu-tac; the fact that the corridors smell of mice; that the work-surfaces are cluttered; that the results of experiments are kept in incredibly neat, hand-written notebooks not (as I expected) on some arcane computer programme.
It left me with more to think about than I've yet managed to process — I had an extraordinary day in a fascinating place. Thank you."
Gaby Chiappe, Freelance scriptwriter
Credits: Casualty, Holby City, EastEnders, Doctors
"I learned about embryonic development. Tristan Rodríguez showed me his lab using computer graphics. He explained to me that there is a sense of direction in embryonic cells. They seem to know, depending on where they are, what kind of cells they're meant to develop into. Those at the top they become brain cells; in a different place they become liver, or kidney cells and so on. How they do that, how cells that are all alike can become any kind of specialized cell, begs a lot of other questions. I certainly didn't understand it all, but got a sense of how fascinating and interesting it is to be a scientist.
I would want a good TV series about scientists to somehow convey this fascination — Why do people want to be scientists? What keeps them at it? — rather than merely concentrating on human relationships set in a scientific environment. No mean feat after a one-day visit to the CSC. Not sure if the scientists would be too happy to have scriptwriters hanging around their labs for weeks on end. That's the dilemma of a scriptwriter."
Kiki von Glasow, Palladio Films
"As always in scientific research — from a jack of all genres point of view — there is the unsettling feeling of knowing less coming out than going in. The real truth is it's the look of the place, the brief glimpse into a closed world, the contrast between the humdrum and the ground breaking, the humour and humanity which stays in the memory."
Kieran Prendeville, Freelance scriptwriter
Credits: Ballykissangel, Perfect Scoundrels, The Bill, Boon, Presenter: Tomorrow's World, That's Life
"A huge thank you, not least for bringing me face to face with one of the iconic images of our time: the moment of transfer of genetic material into a living embryo. Apart from finding this fascinating, I've been reflecting on just what a privilege this was. This is probably one of those images which, in its way, will stay with me for life, and is certain to make its way out in writing. What a unique and fascinating day."
Tony Etchells, Freelance scriptwriter
Credits: Doctors, Casualty, The Bill, Boon, Peak Practice, The Vet, Silent Witness, Medics, EastEnders
"The variety of the research being conducted in such a huge complex was astounding and the differing views and experience of the scientists we met reflected this. Their enthusiasm for the work and for communicating it to the writers was universal, making the day as enjoyable as it was educational."
Andrée Molyneux, Artistic Director, PAWs drama fund
PAWS Research and Development Grants are sponsored by: the UK Resource Centre for women in SET; the EPSRC; the DTI; PParc; BCS; and the Institute of Physics.
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What did the scriptwriters glean from their experience?
"I recently advised my young son to confine the word 'awesome' to things that, in my opinion, actually were, rather than, say, a greenfly in his lettuce, or a particularly explosive sneeze. He said, 'like what, for instance', and I mumbled something about mountain peaks and maybe starry skies if you could see past the city lights. But now I've got an answer and it's a good one: just about everything I saw and heard and learnt that day with the scientists at the CSC: a heart cell, when it decides to be one, starts to throb; bits of genetic material (I'm sorry I was so astonished I've lost some of the details) migrate in search of other bits of genetic material.How? Why? A cell — and this is really simple but I saw it with my own eyes — is alive. Alive. What is that? I learnt about the pursuit of truth. I talked to people whose dedication was frankly humbling. I learnt that science is mostly hard work, repetition and incredible patience, not just the startling discoveries that set the world talking — though it's that too. I met people who shared a brief but so generous glimpse into their knowledge, their world and their lives that opened doors to understanding I hadn't even known were there. With every answer came a new question. I felt, for a moment, that I was standing at the frontier of human knowledge, that what was taking place there under the diligent care of those scientists would shape the world to come. It would change the way we understand ourselves as living creatures and it would introduce profound changes to the biological technologies that will increasingly determine the boundaries of human experience in terms of what can and cannot be done.
There are ethical issues too, along with philosophical, moral and even theological questions. There is little that this research does not or will not touch. It is about life, about how we are and who we are. It is the biggest picture and the smallest detail. Why is a greenfly a greenfly, a sneeze a sneeze? It's all pretty much awesome when you look it that way. So many thanks. It isn't every day the world appears to be such a remarkable place. Maybe it should be. I guess my son had it right all along!"
Robin Mukherjee, Freelance scriptwriter
Credits: Peak Practice, The Bill, EastEnders, Dance With The Wind
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
Arthur C. Clarke
"I was actually rather scared at the prospect of meeting and talking to scientists. Science as a career is a path far removed from anything I know, and my very hazy ideas of what it actually involves have been cobbled together over the years from entirely fictional sources (white coats; cold, clinical spaces and something nasty gestating in a Petri dish).
I was worried that I wouldn't understand, that I would be wasting people's time — that I would look stupid. I mean, 'What do you actually do all day?' seems an offensively bald question to ask anyone.
In the event I was blown away by it all — Tristan Rodriguez showing me blue-dyed cells in a mouse embryo and talking about how their position indicates what mouse-part they will ultimately become. His colleague at lunch talking about those rare 'Eureka!' moments; or the triumph you feel when the experiment has worked and you are proved right; watching genetic material from a human cell being transplanted into a mouse embryo with an impossibly tiny, glass needle. And then all the mundane things mixed in with the magic. The fact that those custom made glass needles are held in their case with blu-tac; the fact that the corridors smell of mice; that the work-surfaces are cluttered; that the results of experiments are kept in incredibly neat, hand-written notebooks not (as I expected) on some arcane computer programme.
It left me with more to think about than I've yet managed to process — I had an extraordinary day in a fascinating place. Thank you."
Gaby Chiappe, Freelance scriptwriter
Credits: Casualty, Holby City, EastEnders, Doctors
"I learned about embryonic development. Tristan Rodríguez showed me his lab using computer graphics. He explained to me that there is a sense of direction in embryonic cells. They seem to know, depending on where they are, what kind of cells they're meant to develop into. Those at the top they become brain cells; in a different place they become liver, or kidney cells and so on. How they do that, how cells that are all alike can become any kind of specialized cell, begs a lot of other questions. I certainly didn't understand it all, but got a sense of how fascinating and interesting it is to be a scientist.
I would want a good TV series about scientists to somehow convey this fascination — Why do people want to be scientists? What keeps them at it? — rather than merely concentrating on human relationships set in a scientific environment. No mean feat after a one-day visit to the CSC. Not sure if the scientists would be too happy to have scriptwriters hanging around their labs for weeks on end. That's the dilemma of a scriptwriter."
Kiki von Glasow, Palladio Films
"As always in scientific research — from a jack of all genres point of view — there is the unsettling feeling of knowing less coming out than going in. The real truth is it's the look of the place, the brief glimpse into a closed world, the contrast between the humdrum and the ground breaking, the humour and humanity which stays in the memory."
Kieran Prendeville, Freelance scriptwriter
Credits: Ballykissangel, Perfect Scoundrels, The Bill, Boon, Presenter: Tomorrow's World, That's Life
"A huge thank you, not least for bringing me face to face with one of the iconic images of our time: the moment of transfer of genetic material into a living embryo. Apart from finding this fascinating, I've been reflecting on just what a privilege this was. This is probably one of those images which, in its way, will stay with me for life, and is certain to make its way out in writing. What a unique and fascinating day."
Tony Etchells, Freelance scriptwriter
Credits: Doctors, Casualty, The Bill, Boon, Peak Practice, The Vet, Silent Witness, Medics, EastEnders
"The variety of the research being conducted in such a huge complex was astounding and the differing views and experience of the scientists we met reflected this. Their enthusiasm for the work and for communicating it to the writers was universal, making the day as enjoyable as it was educational."
Andrée Molyneux, Artistic Director, PAWs drama fund
PAWS Research and Development Grants are sponsored by: the UK Resource Centre for women in SET; the EPSRC; the DTI; PParc; BCS; and the Institute of Physics.
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