Breeds There a Man...? is a science-fiction short story by Isaac Asimov.
It was first published in the June 1951 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was later collected in 1952's Beachheads in Space, 1967's Through a Glass, Clearly, 1969's Nightfall and Other Stories, 1985's The Edge of Tomorrow and Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories, 13: 1951, 1986's Robot Dreams, 1989's The Asimov Chronicles, and 1990's The Complete Stories Volume I.
Summary[]
Dr. Elwood Ralson, a brilliant but deeply troubled physicist, is plagued by a terrifying belief: he is convinced that humanity is an experiment conducted by alien intelligences. He theorizes that these experimenters have bred humans for specific traits throughout history and now view modern industrial humanity as a dangerous, out-of-control "strain." To cleanse their experiment, the aliens plan to use humanity's own invention—the atomic bomb—to provoke self-annihilation.
Ralson believes the aliens are exerting a suicidal impulse on his mind to prevent him from completing his work, as he is on the verge of developing a force field that could defend against atomic weapons. Under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Blaustein, Ralson is managed well enough to provide cryptic guidance to a team of scientists, who successfully build the device.
Immediately after the force field is proven effective, Ralson succumbs to the pressure and commits suicide. The story's chilling conclusion comes later, when the technician who physically assembled the device—a man who had no knowledge of Ralson's theories—also takes his own life, subtly implying that Ralson's paranoid delusions may have been true all along.
Trivia[]
- The title is the opening phrase of canto sixth in Walter Scott's 1805 poem "The Lay of the Last Minstrel", written as "Breathes there the man".
See Also[]
List of short stories by Isaac Asimov