Short Story, “Microcosmic God”

This short story is about a scientist named James Kidder who goes by Mr. Kidder. Mr. Kidder lives on a small island off the New England coast by himself, and specializes in biochemistry. One thing about Mr. Kidder that I think is very interesting is that he never graduated from a college or university, yet he was one of the greatest scientists and was very powerful. He said that he “applied what he knew, what he saw, and what he was taught” when researching or working on an experiment. The two main ideas that he concentrated on were genetics and animal metabolism. A couple of Mr. Kidder’s characteristics and the types of things he did reminded me of what you would think of when you hear about mad scientists. Mr. Kidder made me think of a mad scientist because he did things like throwing seashells at seagulls, wandering around the island, swearing, drinking, and hallucinating. Most important of all, Mr. Kidder was a mad scientist because of the genetic research he did. When no one had heard from Mr. Kidder for a long time, a man was sent to the island to see if he was still alive. It was said that he was amazed at what he had seen there. What kinds of things did he see on the island? Things that he had created include a method of dirtless farming, structural metals, a light pump, and synthetic chlorophyll. The craziest thing that Mr. Kidder created was a new race that would develop and evolve very quickly, surpassing civilization of man. I think that this is very interesting but crazy!