These creepy, real-life medical experiments may have inspired Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” — salon.com

Mary Shelley’s book “Frankenstein” is often cited as the first work of literary science fiction. And while the ability to, quite literally, shock life into a creature is purely the stuff of stories, it is possible she snagged the idea from some very eery real-life experiments being done on dead animals and bodies at the time. Electrical shock, ultimately, did not bring corpses back from the dead, however as Joe Hanson from “It’s Okay to be Smart” points out, Shelley’s “Frankenstein” does raise a lot of interesting questions about science, and nature versus nurture. Is it a cautionary tale about the moral limitations of science? Or is it about humans? And the potential monsters in us all? Watch below:

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