H.G. Wells was witness to a wave of incredible scientific progress that swept across the Western world in the 1920s and 1930s, and the fear and wonder of the age is reflected in his writing. During this time, new fields of research emerged. Novel methods of experimentation were developed. Long-entrenched theories about the workings of the universe were scrutinized, disproved, rejected. Mathematics, chemistry, and physics were being reinvented daily. What had once seemed impossible, now became imaginable. Science seemed ready to propel humanity toward a more hopeful future.