Profusion Pump, aka Glass Heart, is a photo on display at the Department of Special Collections in the Memorial Library. From http://www.nlm.nih.gov

It was dark, dreary Wednesday. Yet room 126 at UW-Madison's Memorial Library was full. The crowd waited with eager anticipation for Frankenstein's monster to come to life once again-not as the sinister character but as a topic of great interest in academic circles.

The crowd was not disappointed. They were treated with a colorful, engaging look at Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "Frankenstein: the Modern Prometheus".

The audience saw Frankenstein through the eyes of Dr. Susan Lederer, the curator of the original "Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature" exhibit.

Lederer says the core of Shelley's novel and the myth it has inspired can be broken down to two phrases: "It's alive" and "It's escaped." This distinction is simple yet accurate considering how variations of the word Frankenstein have been used as part of the vernacular since 1818, when "Frankenstein: the Modern Prometheus" was first published. Lederer says Frankenstein can describe "anything unnatural with its origins in the lab or transgressions into the unnatural."

Susan Lederer speaks in the Memorial Library on the history of Frankenstein.

According to Lederer, some examples of such "transgressions into the unnatural" include human organ transplants from the recently dead, the pacemaker, the smallpox vaccine and the atomic bomb. More recent examples include genetically engineered food and the cloning of Dolly.

When "Frankenstein: the Modern Prometheus" was first published, Shelley was only 20 years old. She first conceived the idea in 1816 as part of a story competition based on supernatural experiences. Shelley's work was largely influenced by two popular scientific topics of her time-the debate over the origins of life and galvanism (the release, through electricity, of mysterious life forces).

Although it was not originally hailed as a great literary work, the imagery in Shelley's novel was adapted on stage and film over the next two centuries. The 1931 film adaptation implanted the association between Frankenstein's monster and out of control science in the public's mind.

Before the 1970's, Shelley and Frankenstein were of little interest to scholars. Early academic interest came from feminist theorists, who were intrigued by her youth, lineage and personal escapades.

However, as the biosciences advance, the issue of ethics in science is becoming an area of great interest in academia as well as in mainstream society.

"Frankenstein provides versatility in the discussion of biomedical advances," Lederer says.

The creation of a nameless, hideous, passionate, highly intelligent monster from scavenged body parts is the ultimate "transgression into the unnatural."

However, the story's relevance is not merely tied to the creation of the monster but also to its murderous deeds after Frankenstein disregards it. Thus, Shelley provides an ominous example of what happens when the creator does not take responsibility for his creation.

The traveling "Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature" exhibition, was brought to Madison through the efforts of Yvonne Schofer, a humanities-English bibliographer at Memorial Library and Robin Rider, curator of Special Collections in Memorial Library and senior lecturer in the history of science department. The traveling display is based on an exhibition produced by the National Library of Medicine in 1997 and has been displayed in libraries across the country since October 2002. The traveling exhibition will end its tour in December 2005 after visiting 80 libraries.

Schofer and Rider both thought it was important to bring this exhibit to UW-Madison because of its relevance to current teaching and research across multiple disciplines.

"[Shelley] explored the boundary between the living and dead but offered no easy solutions to the enduring challenges of using knowledge with wisdom," Schofer says.

The exhibit also provided them with the opportunity to showcase campus library resources.

Lederer's lecture was one of the many "Frankenstein" events brought to Madison this fall. Other events included lectures by distinguished scholars, a daylong symposium featuring papers by UW-Madison faculty and graduate students and a showing of a rare print of the German version of the book, "Der Golem." Schofer and Rider hope the exhibits encouraged viewers to reexamine the novel.

"We will never be rid of Frankenstein's monster whenever we talk about science and scientists," Lederer says.

Story Blurb: Lectures and exhibits highlight the scientific implications of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein: the Modern Prometheus".