| Discussion Questions1. At what point
does the story veer away from historical fiction and become the story of
an alternate world?
2. Outdated scientific controversies often
seem, after the fact, to have been conducted between factions whose views
are more alike than different. What is the difference between neptunists
and vulcanists?
3. What historical facts besides the outcome
of scientific debates has Waldrop altered?
4. Can the story be analyzed as the product
of extrapolation? From what is it extrapolated?
5. Compare the experiment in this story
with the one in Greg Bear's "Schrodinger's Plague." Is this, too, a parable
about science? |
