Aspects of genetics including mutation, hybridisation,
cloning, genetic engineering, and eugenics
have appeared in fiction since the 19th century.
Genetics is a young science, having started
in 1900 with the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's
study on the inheritance of traits in pea
plants. During the 20th century it developed
to create new sciences and technologies including
molecular biology, DNA sequencing, cloning,
and genetic engineering. The ethical implications
were brought into focus with the eugenics
movement.
Since then, many science 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 film Gattaca did
attempt to portray science accurately but
was criticised by scientists.
== Background ==
Modern genetics began with the work of the
monk Gregor Mendel in the 19th century, on
the inheritance of traits in pea plants. Mendel
found that visible traits, such as whether
peas were round or wrinkled, were inherited
discretely, rather than by blending the attributes
of the two parents. 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 including
mutation (inherited changes caused by damage
to the genetic material), genetic linkage
(when some traits are to some extent inherited
together), and hybridisation (crosses of different
species).Eugenics, the production of better
human beings by selective breeding, was named
and advocated by Charles Darwin's cousin,
the scientist Francis 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.Molecular biology, the interactions
and regulation of genetic materials, began
with the identification in 1944 of DNA as
the main genetic material; the genetic code
and the double helix structure of DNA was
determined by James Watson and Francis Crick
in 1953. DNA sequencing, the identification
of an exact sequence of genetic information
in an organism, was developed in 1977 by Frederick
Sanger.Genetic engineering, the modification
of the genetic material of a live organism,
became possible in 1972 when Paul Berg created
the first recombinant DNA molecules (artificially
assembled genetic material) using viruses.Cloning,
the production of genetically identical organisms
from some chosen starting point, was shown
to be practicable in a mammal with the creation
of Dolly the sheep from an ordinary body cell
in 1996 at the Roslin Institute.
== Genetics themes ==
=== Mutants and hybrids ===
Mutation and hybridisation are widely used
in fiction, starting in the 19th century with
science fiction works such as Mary Shelley's
1818 novel Frankenstein and H. G. Wells's
1896 The Island of Dr Moreau.In her 1977 Biological
Themes in Modern Science Fiction, Helen Parker
identified two major types of story: "genetic
accident", the uncontrolled, unexpected and
disastrous alteration of a species; and "planned
genetic alteration", whether controlled by
humans or aliens, and the question of whether
that would be either feasible or desirable.
In science fiction up to the 1970s, the genetic
changes were brought about by radiation, breeding
programmes, or manipulation with chemicals
or surgery (and thus, notes Lars Schmeink,
not necessarily by strictly genetic means).
Examples include The Island of Dr Moreau with
its horrible manipulations; Aldous Huxley's
1932 Brave New World with a breeding programme;
and John Taine's 1951 Seeds of Life, using
radiation to create supermen. After the discovery
of the double helix and then recombinant DNA,
genetic engineering became the focus for genetics
in fiction, as in books like Brian Stableford's
tale of a genetically modified society in
his 1998 Inherit the Earth, or Michael Marshall
Smith's story of organ farming in his 1997
Spares.Comic books have imagined mutated superhumans
with extraordinary powers. The DC Universe
(from 1939) imagines "metahumans"; the Marvel
Universe (from 1961) calls them "mutants",
while the Wildstorm (from 1992) and Ultimate
Marvel (2000–2015) Universes name them "posthumans".
Stan Lee introduced the concept of mutants
in the Marvel X-Men books in 1963; the villain
Magneto declares his plan to "make Homo sapiens
bow to Homo superior!", implying that mutants
will be an evolutionary step up from current
humanity. Later, the books speak of an X-gene
that confers powers from puberty onwards.
X-men powers include telepathy, 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.James
Blish's 1952 novel Titan's Daughter (in Kendell
Foster Crossen's Future Tense collection)
featured stimulated polyploidy (giving organisms
multiple sets of genetic material, something
that can create new species in a single step),
based on spontaneous polyploidy in flowering
plants, to create humans with more than normal
height, strength, and lifespans.
=== Cloning ===
Cloning, too, is a familiar plot device. In
his 1990 novel Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
imagined the recovery of the complete genome
of a dinosaur from fossil remains, followed
by its use to recreate living animals of an
extinct species. Aldous Huxley's 1931 dystopian
novel Brave New World imagines the in vitro
cloning of fertilised human eggs. Huxley was
influenced by J. B. S. Haldane's 1924 non-fiction
book Daedalus; or, Science and the Future,
which used the Greek myth of Daedalus to symbolise
the coming revolution in genetics; Haldane
predicted that humans would control their
own evolution through directed mutation and
in vitro fertilisation. Cloning was explored
further in stories such as Poul Anderson's
1953 UN-Man.Cloning is a recurring theme in
science fiction films like Jurassic Park (1993),
Alien Resurrection (1997), The 6th Day (2000),
Resident Evil (2002), Star Wars: Episode II
(2002) and The 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 in artificial wombs.
In the long-running British television series
Doctor Who, the Fourth Doctor and his companion
Leela were cloned in a matter of seconds from
DNA samples ("The Invisible Enemy", 1977)
and then—in an apparent homage to the 1966
film Fantastic 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. Films
such as The Matrix and Star Wars: Episode
II – Attack of the Clones have featured
human foetuses being cultured on an industrial
scale in enormous tanks.Cloning humans from
body parts is a common science fiction trope,
one of several genetics themes parodied in
Woody Allen's 1973 comedy Sleeper, where an
attempt is made to clone an assassinated dictator
from his disembodied nose.
=== Genetic engineering ===
Genetic engineering features in many science
fiction stories. Films such as The Island
and Blade 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 of Frankenstein.
Few films have informed audiences about genetic
engineering as such, with the exception of
the 1978 The Boys from Brazil and the 1993
Jurassic Park, both of which made use of a
lesson, a demonstration, and a clip of scientific
film. In 1982, Frank Herbert's novel The White
Plague described the deliberate use of genetic
engineering to create a pathogen which specifically
killed women. Another of Herbert's creations,
the Dune series of novels, starting with Dune
in 1965, emphasises genetics. It combines
selective breeding by a powerful sisterhood,
the Bene Gesserit, to produce a supernormal
male being, the Kwisatz Haderach, with the
genetic engineering of the powerful but despised
Tleilaxu.
Genetic engineering methods are weakly represented
in film; Michael Clark, writing for The Wellcome
Trust, calls the portrayal of genetic engineering
and biotechnology "seriously distorted" in
films such as Roger Spottiswoode's 2000 The
6th Day, which makes use of the trope of a
"vast clandestine laboratory ... filled with
row upon row of 'blank' human bodies kept
floating in tanks of nutrient liquid or in
suspended animation". In Clark's view, the
biotechnology is typically "given fantastic
but visually arresting forms" while the science
is either relegated to the background or fictionalised
to suit a young audience.
=== Eugenics ===
Eugenics plays a central role in films such
as Andrew Niccol's 1997 Gattaca, the title
alluding to the letters G, A, T, C for guanine,
adenine, thymine, and cytosine, the four nucleobases
of DNA. Genetic engineering of humans is unrestricted,
resulting in genetic discrimination, loss
of diversity, and adverse effects on society.
The film explores the ethical 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 American National Human Genome Research
Institute before its release. This care did
not prevent researchers from attacking the
film after its release. Philim Yam of Scientific
American called it "science bashing"; in Nature
Kevin Davies called it a ""surprisingly pedestrian
affair"; and the molecular biologist Lee Silver
described the film's extreme genetic determinism
as "a straw man".
== Myth and oversimplification ==
The geneticist Dan Koboldt observes that while
science and technology play major roles in
fiction, from fantasy and science fiction
to thrillers, the representation of science
in both literature and film is often unrealistic.
In Koboldt's view, genetics in fiction is
frequently oversimplified, and some myths
are common and need to be debunked. For example,
the Human Genome Project has not (he states)
immediately led to a Gattaca world, as the
relationship between genotype and phenotype
is not straightforward. People do differ genetically,
but only very rarely because they are missing
a gene that other people have: people have
different alleles 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.
== See also ==
Evolution in fiction
Parasites in fiction
