Naomi Mitchison co-authored her first, and only, scientific paper in 1915 with her brother JBS Haldane. In her memoirs, Mitchison describes feeling pushed out of science because she was more interested in the behavior and personality of her subjects than their genes. She went on to pursue a lauded career as a writer and activist and later used fiction to reclaim the scientific realm denied in her youth. In her science fiction novel Memoirs of a Spacewoman, published in 1962, Mitchison imagines research on animal behavior free from both the boundaries of Earth and the strict scientific culture she experienced. Mitchison created species that contravened pre-conceived notions of sex, sexuality, and motherhood. Her protagonist uses research methods of communication that embrace extreme empathy, erase the barriers between a scientist and their study system and thereby breaks the rules separating observer and observed. Memoirs of a Spacewoman can be embraced as a queer text that agitates the dominant scientific enterprise, shows that the scientific definitions and perspectives on sex are limited and inadequate, and explores alternative methods to science.
