Big Think

Question: Did you always want to be a scientist?

Chudy Nduaka:  Oh, no. My father had a lot to do with it. My father is a veterinarian, my mother was a nurse, and both of them being in health care sort of prodded me toward the sciences. I thought I was going to be in humanities, either, you know, end up as a novelist somewhere or an attorney, but something in humanities and arts, not science. Because to me, science was learned for me; humanities was sort of innate, it was something I thought I had naturally. I did a lot of it in high school, acting and you know, reciting poems, writing poems. The first draft of my novel which has just got published was written right after my high school

Question: How did you decide to write a novel?

Chudy Nduaka:  Well, I always wanted-- I loved literature a lot, growing up. So we read all the African literature, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, everybody knows that, things like that, and I really enjoyed it, so I thought to myself one day I'm going to write like Chinua Achebe and right after high school I started the first draft. You know. It didn't go very far but I took that manuscript with me and sort of tucked it away, and for the next 10 years it was sort of lost in my box, in my suitcase somewhere. And finally after grad school, I picked it up again, dusted it, you know, sort of rewrote the whole thing, but the theme remained the same, and as of this-- actually as of yesterday I received the author's copy, so I'm published. The name of the book is The Vapor of Life, and it's purely fiction based on life in Nigeria and life in the United States.

Question: Is it difficult to balance science with writing?

Chudy Nduaka:  Actually, I think writing actually informs or makes you a better scientist. Because no matter what science you do, you've got to express it some way and communicate it to the audience, you know. You can't just do your science and keep to yourself. So the other part is communications, you know, writing up what you have done. So just grooming that skill set that I have has made me a better scientist because I can also communicate the science that I do.

Recorded on: 6/25/08