Michael Crichton, medical scientist turned author and filmmaker, is aware of scientific research so scary that he would not dare write about it - and this comes from the man who brought us such thrillers as Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain.
He would not be drawn on the subject matter of this research, however, while speaking to journalists after his address to an American Association meeting in Anaheim, California. He feared that it would do a disservice to science, a discipline for which he has obvious regard.
Even so, his talk was a broadside against scientists who are mediashy, unwilling to talk to the public about their work and fretful about how they are portrayed in films.
"Scientists often complain to me that the media misunderstand their work. But I would suggest that in fact the reality is just the opposite, and that it is science which misunderstands media."
Mr Crichton has been involved in a wide range of films and television series, including the highly popular medical drama ER. He has degrees in physical anthropology and medicine and has published medical research in some of the world's leading journals. Thus he speaks with some authority when castigating scientists.
He said that when he worked at the Salk Institute early in his career, senior researchers were discussing who would have to go out and talk to the media. "They acted like they were being asked to take off their clothes in public."
Scientists, he said, often wanted to be left alone to work in quiet and not have to deal with journalists or the public. "That is not feasible any more," he stated. In fact the opposite approach was required.
He advocated having a few scientist celebrities, individuals who would be immediately associated with science as Michael Jordan is with sport.
Scientists, however, tended to be highly critical of any of their own who took it upon themselves to become media stars.
Mr Crichton believes that he is doing a genuine service for science with films such as Jurassic Park, notwithstanding criticisms from some scientists that he strays too far from scientific truth. He likened himself to a first-stage rocket booster, creating a wide interest in things scientific.
It was up to others, however, to carry this through and bring people into the sciences as a career.
He also dismissed those who sniped at his films. "In a story like Jurassic Park, to complain of inaccuracy is downright weird. Nobody can make a dinosaur. Therefore the story is a fantasy. How can accuracy have any meaning in a fantasy?"
What, then, should scientists worry about, he asked. "I want to advance the radical notion that what really matters is not the image, but the reality. Adopting this attitude has the advantage of turning your focus from things you can't do anything about - like scientists in the movies - to things you can."