BRAVE NEW WORLD
Introductory Research Topics
Despite being published in 1932, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is at times purposefully reliant on scientific concepts
and terminology. Moreover, Huxley was reacting specifically to current events as he wrote, and as such the work will
become more meaningful after familiarizing yourself with some of the following key concepts.
Please visit several reliable websites to gather relevant information for the topics and subtopics below. You may create
bullet points, but be thorough. The more information you gather now, the easier it will be to understand what Huxley is
writing about in the novel. Though you may use Wikipedia, it will not always be the most helpful resource.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Ivan Pavlov & BF Skinner
o Classical conditioning
o Operant conditioning
o The “Albert B.
Experiments,” or the
“Little Albert”
experiments
Henry Ford
o Business interests
o Treatment of workers
o Contributions to mass
production
Communism
o What is it? (Find a
definition that makes
sense to you)
o “Big Names” of
communism – who are
they? Name at least three
CONNECTION TO BRAVE NEW WORLD
Human Genetic
Engineering
o Some basic history
o Progress made (what are
scientists working on
now?)
o Moral issues? (Find at
least one argument for
engineering and one
against)
Cloning
o Process?
o Find examples of what
types of cloning have
already been
accomplished
o Moral issues? (Find at
least one pro and one
con)
Hypnopaedia (sleeplearning)
o Describe experiments and
purpose
o Comment on its use as a
learning tool