The electric crocodile

[From back cover]

In 1933, the physicist Kapitza ordered, for the facade of his new laboratory, a crocodile's head, in steel.

The crocodile of science.

The crocodile cannot turn its head. Life science, it must always go forward with all-devouring jaws. The inevitable logic of discovery marches to inescapable conclusions.

But must it? Can the future be manipulated?

At the Colindale Institute they knew that control was possible. By the Institute. But only if the fact of control and the techniques of control were kept absolutely secret.