Laboratory by Jerome Bixby
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"Laboratory" by Jerome Bixby is a science fiction short story originally published in the mid-20th century, specifically in the December 1955 issue of "Worlds of If Science Fiction." The narrative revolves around the complicated interactions between two alien scientists—a senior named Pud and his junior assistant Gop—and a pair of human explorers, Johnny and Helen Gorman, who unintentionally land on their secretive laboratory-planet. The story delves into themes of advanced intelligence, the
implications of contact between different species, and the unintended consequences of scientific experimentation. In "Laboratory," the two alien scientists are engrossed in their experiments when they suddenly encounter the unexpected arrival of the human duo. Following a series of humorous and chaotic encounters, including the activation of various experimental energy fields, the Vegans find themselves revealing their presence to the humans. Pud and Gop wrestle with the regulations of Contact and the potential repercussions of their exposure to the aliens. Ultimately, they devise a method to erase the humans' memories of the event and send them back in time to avoid any disruptive knowledge of their existence. The story explores the idea of how civilizations at different levels of technological advancement interact and the ethical considerations involved in such encounters. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Bixby, Jerome, 1923-1998 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Emshwiller, Ed, 1925-1990 |
| Title | Laboratory |
| Series Title | Produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, December 1955 |
| Credits |
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 75.5 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Extraterrestrial beings -- Fiction |
| Subject | Human-alien encounters -- Fiction |
| Subject | Extrasolar planets -- Fiction |
| Subject | Laboratories -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 59470 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-59470-5 |
| Release Date | May 10, 2019 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 479 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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