Vad är titeln och vem är författaren till en 1960-tal science fiction-historia där en artificiell och miniatyr livsform utvecklas snabbt, känns att vara ett hot mot mänskligheten, och så småningom bombas med en atombom? Vid bombningen är livsformerna så avancerade att de med framgång skyddar sig från bomben.
Jag tror att detta är Theodore Sturgeons Mikrokosmiska Gud , som faktiskt publicerades 1941. Livsformerna kallas "neoterics" och lever väldigt accelererade liv, vilket leder dem att snabbt överstiga mänskligheten tekniskt. I berättelsen var bomberna inte kärnkraft; Det finns en scen där Kidder, den vetenskapsman som skapade neoteriken, kör mot sitt hus på den ena änden av ön där han bodde medan den andra änden bombas. De andra detaljerna matchar dock.
Från Wikipedia-artikeln:
A highly secretive and reclusive biochemist named Kidder produces inventions that transform human life, spanning every aspect of science and engineering. Unbeknownst to anyone, Kidder has developed a synthetic life form, which he calls "neoterics." These creatures live at a greatly accelerated rate, and therefore have a very short lifespan and produce many generations over a short period of time. This allows Kidder, by presenting them with a frequently changing environment, to "evolve" them quickly into highly intelligent lifeforms who fear Kidder and worship him like a god. Kidder can control his neoterics' environment, and thus force them into developing technology far beyond that of humans. While earlier inventions had been his own, Kidder created the neoterics with the intention that they would become the source of many newer and greater inventions which he could claim as his own.
Kidder's banker takes over the island on which he has built his laboratory, hoping to use a neoteric design for a new source of power to take over the world. When the banker strikes to kill Kidder and the workers who had assisted in building the power plant, Kidder asks the neoterics to throw up an impenetrable force field.
The story ends years later. It is unknown whether or not Kidder is still alive under the shield, and certain that the neoterics have continued to develop technology far in excess of anything controlled by humans. The reader is left to suppose that, if the neoterics were to decide to take the Earth, nothing would stop them.
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