The shape of things to come
Was HG Wells, born 150 years ago today, merely prophetic, or did he actually influence the path of modern science?
HERBERT George Wells, pioneer of science fiction, was born on September 21, 1866, in Bromley, England.
Largely self-educated, he won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science (later the Royal College of Science in South Kensington, now part of Imperial College London).
In 1895, he published his classic novel ‘The Time Machine’, about a man who journeys to the future. The book was a success, as were his subsequent books ‘The Invisible Man’ (1897) and ‘The War of the Worlds’ (1898).
While tales such as ‘The Time Machine’ have had an obvious influence on later writings, not just for print but also cinema and television (think: ‘Doctor Who’), one website suggests Wells’s legacy goes a lot deeper. Among its list of 10 works of science fiction that changed the world, number four is ‘The War of the Worlds’.
“The grandfather of the modern alien invasion story, HG Wells’s novel has a cultural impact that’s staggering, but is also responsible for at least one planetary moulding feat: Robert H Goddard, inventor of the liquid-fuelled rocket, decided to dedicate his life to the subject after reading the story as a teenager – his research eventually culminated with the Apollo programme and man’s landing on the moon.”
The same source cites another, lesser-known, HG Wells novel, ‘The World Set Free’ as its number five. The novel, they say, “is also responsible for a cataclysmic development: the invention of the H-Bomb.
In the story, Wells predicts atomic energy and the development of a new kind of bomb based on a nuclear reaction, resulting in a ‘continuing explosive’ that would detonate repeatedly for days.
Physicist Leo Szilard read the story in 1932 and the neutron was discovered later that year.
In 1933, inspired by the story, Szilard developed the idea of a neutron chain reaction, patented the idea in 1934 and, eight years later, we saw the development of the Manhattan Project.
Prophet or protagonist? Something to mull over on the 150th anniversary of the writer’s birth.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
For news straight to your phone, add us on BBM 58F3D7A7 or WhatsApp 082 421 6033
