Get the science right, get a stamp from the Washington Academy of Sciences.
By Colin Lecher Posted 01.10.2013 at 12:59 pm 4 Comments

Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler Wikimedia Commons

The Washington Academy of Sciences is offering a different kind of peer review: they'll take a look at your mystery book, and if it's up to scientific snuff, give it a literal stamp of approval.

WAS Seal Of Approval
WAS Seal Of Approval:  Washington Academy of Science via BBC
For too long, WAS says, crime- and thriller-fiction writers have skimped on plausible plotlines, passing manuscripts off to editors who won't check to see if their facts are straight. And with new-fangled tech cropping up, it's getting harder all the time for writers to write about mysteries convincingly. As an alternative, the writers can hand their work over to WAS. If it passes muster, they'll give it a "Peer Reviewed & Approved for Science" button.

The BBC points out exactly why we need this. DNA testing and the War on Terror fundamentally changed crime novels: the old gumshoe detective writers who didn't need to know much more than how a telephone worked and a lie looked on a face might need the extra hand nowadays.

Makes you wonder how Dashiell Hammett would describe a centrifuge.

[BBC]

4 Comments

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Robot
01/10/13 at 1:11 pm

LoL, I have a feeling of what the comments might be. I'll just wait and see...

Interesting article and good points too.

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ppardee
01/10/13 at 3:34 pm

"Alright, Watson," Holmes said as he stepped into the carriage, "now all we have to do is get this DNA sample back to the lab and we'll have a 3D, holographic representation of our killer."

Minutes later, a slowly-spinning image fizzed to life on the holo-projector.

"I don't recognize him at all, Holmes," Watson sighed with a grimace.

"Nor do I, but with such a distinctive face tattoo, he should be easy to track down!"

Do I get the seal now?

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Mukuro Holmes
01/10/13 at 9:14 pm

Good thing Mark Gatiss and Steve Moffat produced the Sherlock tv series. It's basically modern-day Sherlock Holmes,so most scientific facts and technology are fairly realistic (maybe except for Baskerville fear gas and neurotoxin-laced eczema cream).

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jeanjoan421
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