Breeds There a Man...?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Breeds There a Man...? is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the June 1951 issue of Astounding and reprinted in the 1967 collection Through a Glass, Clearly and the 1969 collection Nightfall and Other Stories .
Elwood Ralson, a brilliant but psychologically disturbed physicist, becomes convinced that humanity is a kind of genetics experiment run by an alien intelligence. His behaviour becomes more erratic and suicidal as his thoughts become more entrenched in this idea, and his health fails.
He claims that the aliens want him to die before he can help produce a defence against atomic weapons, since a defence against atomic weapons would protect humanity against an extinction at the hands of the aliens (Ralson claims that humanity, analogous to bacteria when faced with the advanced technology and power of the aliens, has developed an immunity against the pennicilin that the aliens use to control the experiment). Under the care of a psychiatrist, he is able to provide guidance to the scientists carrying out the research. Once the experiment is complete and the defence is built and tested, he commits suicide. Before so doing, however, his psychologists actually begins to believe Ralson's story.
| Nightfall and Other Stories |
| Nightfall | Green Patches | Hostess | Breeds There a Man...? | C-Chute | In a Good Cause- | What If- | Sally | Flies | Nobody Here But- | It's Such a Beautiful Day | Strikebreaker | Insert Knob A in Hole B | The Up-To-Date Sorcerer | Unto the Fourth Generation | What is This Thing Called Love? | The Machine that Won the War | My Son, the Physicist | Eyes Do More Than See | Segregationist |
