The
publishers of Pan called this book "a genetic nightmare that is only a
headline away. First there were test-tube babies - now there is Pan."Pan
The
publishers of Pan called this book "a genetic nightmare that is only a
headline away. First there were test-tube babies - now there is Pan."
This book is a medical futuristic novel, medical science fiction. The idea
for the plot came to me from the pages of "Natural History Magazine." A
professor of paleontology and evolutionary biology at Harvard, Dr. Stephen J. Gould, wrote a regular
column called "This View of Life." In one of his articles he mused about
what lower animals really think about life, if they think about it at all.
Then he wrote that the only way to really know would be to combine the genes
of a chimpanzee with the genes of a human, raise the child, and ask it!
The first half of this book tells how this could be done, by the union of
human and chimpanzee genes by way of human egg and chimp sperm. This
is possible because humans and chimps share 96%of the same genes. A
chimp's genome is closer by far to a human's than it is to any of the other
great apes.
The second half of the book follows the
life of the boy who is the result of that union. The offspring was the first of a
totally new species, the result of a unique scientific experiment. Pan,
half-man, half-beast, inhabited a world of shadows, torn between his human
and animal natures. The conflict within him threatened not only the success
of the experiment, but his own life, and the life of the one person who
cared about him.
I chose the name "Pan" for this hybrid for two reasons. One, the scientific
name for the Eastern Common Chimpanzee is Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii. Secondly, Pan is the
Latin name for Hermes, the messenger of the gods, and also the god of the
fields and woods. Pan exhibits these traits as he ages from childhood to
young manhood.
An autographed paperback copy is available for $12 plus $2 S & H from the author at
W 4290 Jene Road
dibble@discover-net.net
Eau Claire, WI 54701
I would be happy to correspond by e-mail but I cannot take a credit card, so payment should be by check or money order.
Copies of the book may be available at: