Law, Biosciences, and (Bio)Science Fiction

This year the people involved in the Center for Law and Biosciences include an unusually high number of science fiction fans.  So we have decided to start a new occasional blog series on law, biosciences, and (bio)science fiction.  Various CLB folks will post their thoughts on science fiction – in print, films, video, or games – that they think has implications for, or echoes of, law and the biosciences.

We don’t know where, if anywhere, we are going with this and we do not claim that these posts will have some deep importance – although neither are we disclaiming that possibility.  At the very least, we hope they will be fun and might lead some people to discover, or rediscover, some provocative fiction.  We hope you will enjoy them and we welcome your comments.

Personally, I devoured about three tons of science fiction and fantasy between the ages of 10 and 30.  I’ve read much less since then (though I’ve re-read quite a bit).  I started with the Oz books (the Wizard of Oz had over 40 successors), then moved to the Mars series of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and on to the golden age science fiction of Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, and, above all, Robert A. Heinlein; before discovering J.R.R. Tolkein, Ursula Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, and others.  We start this series with my essay on a minor, largely forgotten Heinlein short story that was one of his rare forays into biology:  Jerry Was a Man.

Hank Greely