Editing Carl Djerassi (section)

===Science-in-fiction===
Djerassi wrote five novels, four of which he described as "science-in-fiction",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.djerassi.com/science.html|title=Science in Fiction|last=Djerassi|first=Carl|access-date=December 19, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Solon|first=Olivia|title=Q&A: Co-Inventor of 'The Pill' Talks Art, Science and Chemistry|url=https://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/09/djerassi-qa/|newspaper=Wired UK|date=September 6, 2012}}</ref> fiction that portrays the lives of real scientists, with all their accomplishments, conflicts, and aspirations. The genre is also referred to as [[Lab lit]].<ref name=NYT2006>{{cite news | author = Bouton, Katherine |date=December 3, 2012| title = In Lab Lit, Fiction Meets Science of the Real World |newspaper = The New York Times | pages = D2 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/science/in-lab-lit-fiction-meets-science-of-the-real-world.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0}}</ref>

In his first two novels, ''Cantor's Dilemma'' and ''Bourbaki Gambit'', he shows how scientists work and think. In ''Cantor's Dilemma'', there is the suspicion of scientific fraud; in ''Bourbaki Gambit'' the question of personal achievement stands in the center.<ref name=Bourbaki>{{cite web|title=The Bourbaki Gambit|url=http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/bourbaki_gambit|access-date=February 2, 2015|agency=University of Georgia Press|archive-date=February 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202174044/http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/bourbaki_gambit|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the third, ''Menachem's Seed'', [[Intracytoplasmic sperm injection|ICSI]] and the [[Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs|Pugwash]] organization are the main themes.<ref name=Pugwash>{{cite journal|last1=Smith|first1=Phililp|title=Pugwash, thinly disguised|journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|date=1997|volume=53|issue=6|pages=57–58|doi=10.1080/00963402.1997.11456791|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vgwAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA57|access-date=February 2, 2015|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In the last, ''NO'', he shows how young scientists develop an idea as far as founding a company to market a product<ref name=MalePhill>{{cite news|last1=Djerassi|first1=Carl|title=Carl Djerassi: 'I, a feminist father of the Pill, foresee no male Pill'|url=http://www.the-principal.com/2013/11/carl-djerassi-i-a-feminist-father-of-the-pill-foresee-no-male-pill/|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=Wired Science|date=November 4, 2013|archive-date=February 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202200650/http://www.the-principal.com/2013/11/carl-djerassi-i-a-feminist-father-of-the-pill-foresee-no-male-pill/|url-status=dead}}</ref> – something Djerassi himself did in the field of insecticides.

The topic of the fifth novel, ''Marx Deceased'', is the role of a writer's earlier bestsellers for the assessment of a new work – in contrast to the assessment of an anonymous work or one of a formerly unknown author.<ref name=MarxReview>{{cite journal|title='Marx, Deceased' by Carl Djerassi (Review)|journal=Kirkus Reviews|date=August 2, 1996|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carl-djerassi-4/marx-deceased-2/|access-date=February 2, 2015}}</ref> He also plays with this topic in ''Bourbaki Gambit''.