Fatal Eggs

In Bulgakov’s Fatal Eggs, Professor Persikov’s happens upon a strange discovery. Professor Persikov discovers that a light ray can accelerate growth and reproduction in living beings. At the same time a chicken plague is sweeping the country. One of the things that stuck with me the most about this story was on the last page when it’s explained how the “red ray” was never discovered again after Professor Persikov dies. “The ray itself was never again captured, although the elegant gentleman and now full professor, Peter Stepanovich Ivanov, had occasionally made attempts.” Even after the disastrous events that happened, Ivanov still wanted to recreate the red ray.

While this is a regular occurrence in stories about genetic mutation, this specifically reminded me of a quote form Jurassic Park when Dr. Malcolm says, “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Fatal Eggs and Jurassic Park have a similar story line in the way scientific experiments involving genetic mutation/engineering end up going wrong and causing chaos, I think this is just the way most genetic mutation/engineering stories end up going. Genetic modifications dates back centuries and I think it’s just because of the nature of humans. We’re curious, but we never seem to understand that there are consequences to our actions.