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Aspects ofgenetics includingmutation,hybridisation,cloning,genetic engineering, andeugenics have appeared in fiction since the 19th century.
Genetics is a young science, having started in 1900 with the rediscovery ofGregor Mendel's study on the inheritance oftraits in pea plants. During the 20th century it developed to create new sciences and technologies includingmolecular biology,DNA sequencing, cloning, and genetic engineering. Theethical implications were brought into focus with the eugenics movement.
Since then, manyscience fiction novels and films have used aspects of genetics as plot devices, often taking one of two routes: a genetic accident with disastrous consequences; or, the feasibility and desirability of a planned genetic alteration. The treatment of science in these stories has been uneven and often unrealistic. The filmGattaca did attempt to portray science accurately but was criticised by scientists.
Modern genetics began with the work of the monkGregor Mendel in the 19th century, on the inheritance oftraits in pea plants. Mendel found that visible traits, such as whether peas were round or wrinkled, wereinherited discretely, rather than byblending the attributes of the two parents.[1] In 1900,Hugo de Vries and other scientists rediscovered Mendel's research;William Bateson coined the term "genetics" for the new science, which soon investigated a wide range of phenomena includingmutation (inherited changes caused by damage to the genetic material),genetic linkage (when some traits are to some extent inherited together), andhybridisation (crosses of differentspecies).[2]
Eugenics, the production of better human beings by selective breeding, was named and advocated byCharles Darwin's cousin, the scientistFrancis Galton, in 1883. It had both a positive aspect, the breeding of more children with high intelligence and good health; and a negative aspect, aiming to suppress "race degeneration" by preventing supposedly "defective" families with attributes such as profligacy, laziness, immoral behaviour and a tendency to criminality from having children.[3][4]
Molecular biology, the interactions andregulation of genetic materials, began with the identification in 1944 ofDNA as the main genetic material;[5] thegenetic code and thedouble helix structure of DNA was determined byJames Watson andFrancis Crick in 1953.[6][7]DNA sequencing, the identification of an exact sequence of genetic information in an organism, was developed in 1977 byFrederick Sanger.[8]
Genetic engineering, the modification of the genetic material of a live organism, became possible in 1972 whenPaul Berg created the firstrecombinant DNA molecules (artificially assembled genetic material) usingviruses.[9]
Cloning, the production of genetically identical organisms from some chosen starting point, was shown to be practicable in a mammal with the creation ofDolly the sheep from anordinary body cell in 1996 at theRoslin Institute.[10]
Mutation andhybridisation are widely used in fiction, starting in the 19th century withscience fiction works such as Mary Shelley's 1818 novelFrankenstein andH. G. Wells's 1896The Island of Dr. Moreau.[11]
In her 1977Biological Themes in Modern Science Fiction, Helen Parker identified two major types of story: "genetic accident", the uncontrolled, unexpected and disastrous alteration of a species;[12][13] and "planned genetic alteration", whether controlled by humans oraliens, and the question of whether that would be either feasible or desirable.[12][13] In science fiction up to the 1970s, the genetic changes were brought about byradiation, breeding programmes, or manipulation with chemicals orsurgery (and thus, notes Lars Schmeink, not necessarily by strictly genetic means).[13] Examples includeThe Island of Dr. Moreau with its horrible manipulations;Aldous Huxley's 1932Brave New World with a breeding programme; andJohn Taine's 1951Seeds of Life, using radiation to create supermen.[13] After the discovery of the double helix and then recombinant DNA, genetic engineering became the focus for genetics in fiction, as in books likeBrian Stableford's tale of a genetically modified society in his 1998Inherit the Earth, orMichael Marshall Smith's story ofOrgan farming in his 1997Spares.[13]
Comic books have imagined mutatedsuperhumans with extraordinary powers. TheDC Universe (from 1939) imagines "metahumans"; theMarvel Universe (from 1961) calls them "mutants", while theWildstorm (from 1992) andUltimate Marvel (2000–2015) Universes name them "posthumans".[14] Stan Lee introduced the concept of mutants in the Marvel X-Men books in 1963; the villain Magneto declares his plan to "makeHomo sapiens bow toHomo superior!", implying that mutants will be an evolutionary step up from current humanity. Later, the books speak of an X-gene that confers powers frompuberty onwards. X-men powers includetelepathy,telekinesis, healing, strength, flight,time travel, and the ability to emit blasts of energy. Marvel's god-like Celestials are later (1999) said to have visited Earth long ago and to have modified human DNA to enable mutant powers.[15]
James Blish's 1952 novelTitan's Daughter (inKendell Foster Crossen'sFuture Tense collection) featured stimulatedpolyploidy (giving organisms multiple sets of genetic material, something that can create newspecies in a single step), based on spontaneous polyploidy inflowering plants, to create humans with more than normal height, strength, and lifespans.[16]
Cloning, too, is a familiar plot device.Aldous Huxley's 1931 dystopian novelBrave New World imagines thein vitro cloning of fertilised humaneggs.[17][18] Huxley was influenced byJ. B. S. Haldane's 1924 non-fiction bookDaedalus; or, Science and the Future, which used the Greek myth ofDaedalus to symbolise the coming revolution in genetics; Haldane predicted that humans wouldcontrol their own evolution through directedmutation andin vitro fertilisation.[19] Cloning was explored further in stories such asPoul Anderson's 1953UN-Man.[20] In his 1976 novel,The Boys from Brazil,Ira Levin describes the creation of 96 clones ofAdolf Hitler, replicating for all of them the rearing of Hitler (including the death of his father at age 13), with the goal of resurrecting Nazism. In his 1990 novelJurassic Park,Michael Crichton imagined the recovery of the completegenome of adinosaur fromfossil remains, followed by its use to recreate living animals of anextinct species.[11]
Cloning is a recurring theme in science fiction films likeJurassic Park (1993),Alien Resurrection (1997),The 6th Day (2000),Resident Evil (2002),Star Wars: Episode II (2002) andThe Island (2005). The process of cloning is represented variously in fiction. Many works depict the artificial creation of humans by a method of growing cells from a tissue or DNA sample; the replication may be instantaneous, or take place through slow growth of human embryos inartificial wombs. In the long-running British television seriesDoctor Who, theFourth Doctor and his companionLeela were cloned in a matter of seconds from DNA samples ("The Invisible Enemy", 1977) and then—in an apparenthomage to the 1966 filmFantastic Voyage—shrunk to microscopic size in order to enter the Doctor's body to combat an alien virus. The clones in this story are short-lived, and can only survive a matter of minutes before they expire.[21] Films such asThe Matrix andStar Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones have featured humanfoetuses being cultured on an industrial scale in enormous tanks.[22]
Cloning humans from body parts is a common science fiction trope, one of several genetics themes parodied inWoody Allen's 1973 comedySleeper, where an attempt is made to clone an assassinated dictator from his disembodied nose.[23]
Genetic engineering features in many science fiction stories.[16] Films such asThe Island (2005) andBlade Runner (1982) bring the engineered creature to confront the person who created it or the being it was cloned from, a theme seen in some film versions ofFrankenstein. Few films have informed audiences about genetic engineering as such, with the exception of the 1978The Boys from Brazil and the 1993Jurassic Park, both of which made use of a lesson, a demonstration, and a clip of scientific film.[11][24] In 1982,Frank Herbert's novelThe White Plague described the deliberate use of genetic engineering to create apathogen which specifically killed women.[16] Another of Herbert's creations, theDune series of novels, starting withDune in 1965, emphasises genetics. It combinesselective breeding by a powerful sisterhood, theBene Gesserit, to produce a supernormal male being, the Kwisatz Haderach, with the genetic engineering of the powerful but despisedTleilaxu.[25]
Eugenics plays a central role in films such asAndrew Niccol's 1997Gattaca, the title alluding to the letters G, A, T, C forguanine,adenine,thymine, andcytosine, the fournucleobases ofDNA. Genetic engineering of humans is unrestricted, resulting ingenetic discrimination, loss of diversity, and adverse effects on society. The film explores theethical implications; the production company, Sony Pictures, consulted with a gene therapy researcher,French Anderson, to ensure that the portrayal of science was realistic, and test-screened the film with the Society of Mammalian Cell Biologists and the AmericanNational Human Genome Research Institute before its release. This care did not prevent researchers from attacking the film after its release. Philim Yam ofScientific American called it "science bashing"; inNature Kevin Davies called it a ""surprisingly pedestrian affair"; and themolecular biologistLee Silver described the film's extremegenetic determinism as "astraw man".[26][27]
Thegeneticist Dan Koboldt observes that while science and technology play major roles in fiction, fromfantasy and science fiction tothrillers, the representation of science in both literature and film is often unrealistic.[28] In Koboldt's view, genetics in fiction is frequently oversimplified, and some myths are common and need to be debunked. For example, theHuman Genome Project has not (he states) immediately led to aGattaca world, as the relationship betweengenotype andphenotype is not straightforward. People do differ genetically, but only very rarely because they are missing agene that other people have: people have differentalleles of the same genes. Eye and hair colour are controlled not by one gene each, but by multiple genes. Mutations do occur, but they are rare: people are 99.99% identical genetically, the 3 million differences between any two people being dwarfed by the hundreds of millions of DNA bases which are identical; nearly all DNA variants are inherited, not acquired afresh by mutation. And, Koboldt writes, believable scientists in fiction should know their knowledge is limited.[29]
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