8.2 /10 1 Votes
Language Russian Publication date 1925 Media type Print Page count 157 Cover artist Richard M. Powers | 4.1/5 Goodreads Publisher Macmillan Publishing Published in English 1980 Originally published 1925 Genre Science Fiction Translator Antonina W. Bouis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Original title Голова профессора Доуэля Similar Alexander Belyaev books, Science Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Professor Dowell's Head is a 1925 science fiction story (and later novel) by Russian author Alexander Belyayev.
Contents
Plot
Professor Dowell and his assistant surgeon Dr. Kern are working on medical problems including life support in separated body parts. Dr. Kern kills Dowell (in a set up car / asthma accident). Professor Dowell's head is now kept alive and used by Dr. Kern for extraction of scientific secrets; however, his new assistant, the medically-trained Marie Laurent, discovers the ploy and is dismayed; to keep her from exposing him, Kern eventually gets her imprisoned in a false lunatic asylum for undesirables. Continuing his experiments, Dr. Kern transplants the head of a young woman to a new body. That body belongs to the girlfriend of a friend of Dowell's son, who recognizes her body when the young woman flees Dr. Kern's laboratory. Together, Dowell's son and his friend free Marie Laurent. Dr. Kern is anxious to announce himself as the inventor. But Dowell's son and Marie Laurent help his father's head get in front of the cameras and reveal the truth. The head of professor Dowell tells everything and dies. Dr. Kern, disgraced, commits suicide.
Editions
Scientific links
Real head transplantation operations were successfully done in Soviet Union and United States, though not on humans.
The possibility to transfer living brains into robots is being considered as a potential life saving option for terminal patients.