Caltech and JPL Authors Publish Original Speculative Fiction Anthology

Inner Space & Outer Thoughts: Speculative Fiction From Caltech and JPL Authors features stories across science, technology, space, and beyond.

By Julia Ehlert

“The precious time between experiments, waiting for simulations to complete, or anticipating the return of a red-marked research manuscript allows a scientist’s mind to wander,” begins the introduction to Inner Space and Outer Thoughts: Speculative Fiction From Caltech and JPL Authors. “Some of our minds tend to wander into imaginary worlds of our own design.”

Those worlds, born in the minds of Caltech and JPL scientists, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and alumni, are now available for all to explore in Caltech’s first-ever anthology of speculative fiction, which was published in March 2023 and spearheaded by TechLit, Caltech’s creative writing club. The idea for the project came about during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Rachael Kuintzle, a biochemistry and molecular biophysics graduate student set to receive her PhD in June who co-founded TechLit and served as the anthology’s editor-in-chief.

“A lot of people weren’t able to spend as much time on their research—they had more time to write,” Kuintzle says. “We thought, why don’t we take advantage of this time and put out a call for submissions? We got some great pieces, and over the next year, our editors worked intensively back and forth with the authors to develop their stories.”

Notable contributors include award-winning speculative fiction authors and Caltech alumni David Brin (BS ’73), S.B. Divya (BS ’96), and Larry Niven (EX ’60). Christof Koch, former Caltech faculty member and president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, also co-authored a story.

“When it came to this collection of stories by Caltech- and JPL-affiliated writers, I expected the usual range, from raw gems to lumps of coal needing a whole lot of squeezing,” says Brin, who mentored other authors in addition to contributing a story. “To my surprise, every author showed storytelling skills above grade, and some with truly inspired artistic vision.”

Short stories in the anthology feature alien worlds, lunar probes, microbiota, and procreating AI experiencing parenthood. Brin’s contribution, “Chrysalis,” tells the unsettling tale of two biologists who discover the potential of “junk” DNA to enable tissue regeneration and human metamorphosis.

“One of the most rewarding things about the anthology was that we got to work with many people who are scientists first and writers second,” Kuintzle says. “The authors took their expertise and came up with these beautiful creative stories, sometimes grounded in their own work, sometimes grounded in an area of science that they’ve always been curious about but never got to explore professionally.”

Olivia Pardo works on mineral physics in her doctoral research at Caltech, but she wrote a story inspired by a cosmology class from her undergraduate studies. “Degenerates,” the final story of the anthology, follows a slowly dying computer tasked with uploading the entirety of its creators’ knowledge into neutrino storage before the end of the universe.

Pardo says that the anthology project meant a lot to her during the height of the pandemic. “Having been working from home for four months, I felt pretty disconnected from Caltech and the community in general,” Pardo shares. “But discussing my story with the editors throughout the year was a great way to interact and connect with other scientists in a way that wasn’t related to my research.”

For Kuintzle, the collaborative and community elements of the project also stuck out. “When TechLit began six years ago, it was just a few people getting together to write every month. Now we’ve had several single- and dual-author novels come out of the club, in various stages of completion, and the anthology is our biggest collaborative project yet. It’s grown into a really vibrant community of writers.”

TechLit will host a book launch celebration for Inner Space and Outer Thoughts on May 20 in Beckman Auditorium, which also will be livestreamed on Caltech’s YouTube channel. It will feature story excerpt readings from Brin, Divya, Niven, and alumnus Samuel Clamons (PhD ’22). The event will also include a Q&A with several contributing authors.

Inner Space and Outer Thoughts is available for download or purchase on Amazon and can also be purchased at the Caltech Store, Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles, and other local bookstores. All royalties from book sales go directly to the TechLit club.