h the same way as the medical scientists today examine astronauts for the physical affects of space travel and analyze carefully the rocks and other specimens they bring back with them. The War of the Worlds (1898) describes the invasion by the Martians, who arrived from their planet in ten cylinders at 20-4-hour intervals to devastate the whole country and destroy London. The War of the Worlds impressed its readers because England was constantly being scared by the thought of possible invasions by France or Germany. The English were becoming concerned about how prepared they were to resist attack from other powers.The scientific background is plausible. People had long believed that Mars might be populated. Astronomers supported the theory that the planet was drawing farther away from the sun and therefore getting colder. Wells suggests in The War of the Worlds that the Martians would look for a warmer climate like that of the earth. He also assumed that its inhabitants were cleverer than men. Their weapons included heat rays that pulverized artillery and battleships. Today we have something similar in a laser beam. Naturally with such devices, the Martians quickly established a reign of terror. Humankind panicked. People were being trampled and crushing each other to death. H.G. Wells published the first edition of The Island of Dr. Moreau in 1896. This was long before the world knew anything about DNA, cloning, or chromosomes. We worry now that experiments, particularly cloning, might lead to dangerous secret experiments on humans. Wells was warning society in his time about this same thing. He was afraid that science might lead to the control of evolutionary processes.When The Island of Dr. Moreau was published, it got bad reviews for being too outlandish.[4] Today a book about cloning would be considered scientific, not just science fiction. This book is not only a warning; it also says that experiments on humans a...
