Recently, two scientific achievements brought home to me — yet again — the great lengths human beings will go to satisfy their curiosity.

The first was fictional: a stage production of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein published in 1818. Although the novel has been around for nearly two centuries, few have read it in the modern era, and many have a vague idea that Frankenstein was some kind of manmade monster.

Actually, he was the scientist who set out to give life to a dead man. Shelley was only 18 when she wrote her novel, and had picked up notions about ‘galvanism’, a scientific fad in the early days of electricity. In the book, Victor Frankenstein sets about literally raising a man from the dead, but when he succeeds, he is frightened of the monster he has created and flees, leaving the creature to its own fate.

Frankenstein’s monster is one of the enduring creations of fiction, and the story is widely viewed as a modern retelling of the legend of Prometheus, the Greek god who stole fire from Zeus. In the play, directed by Danny Boyle, the creature’s return to life is the most moving and powerful scene I have ever seen on stage.

For around seven minutes, he stirs, rises slowly, awkwardly finds his balance, stumbles around, and finally stands upright. His body and face are crisscrossed with stitches, and he is a terrifying figure as he flexes his muscles and tries to orient himself.

Brilliantly played by Benedict Cumerbatch, the creature proceeds to discover his identity. Spurned and chased away by everybody but a blind old man, he finally makes his way to Frankenstein’s castle in Switzerland where he demands that his creator make a mate for him. In a deeply moving scene, he declares that he had not asked to be brought to life, and Frankenstein (played by Johnny Lee Miller) owed it to him to create a female partner to be his companion. He also accuses Frankenstein of having abandoned him, leaving him to wander about friendless and alone. Finally, he threatens to ruin his creator’s life if he doesn’t agree.

The scientist reluctantly gives in, and leaves his family and his fiancée to move to a remote part of Scotland where he finds a fresh female corpse. But he stops just short of actually imbuing her with the spark of life. His creature is enraged and threatens vengeance. He follows him back to his home and in a dramatic finale, ravishes and kills Frankenstein’s bride.

The director has, in a unique twist, cast both leading actors in the two main roles: thus, Cumerbatch and Miller take turns playing Frankenstein and the creature on alternate performances. I did not see Miller playing the monster, but I can’t imagine Cumerbatch’s performance being bettered. I had seen him earlier playing the famous detective in the popular TV series Sherlock and thought him to be a good actor, but had never expected him to rise to this level of brilliance. The story is about hubris; it is also about boundless curiosity as well as man’s cruelty, loneliness and despair.

The other scientific achievement was more recent: the amazing 300 million mile voyage of Rosetta that took ten years, and Philae’s descent to the surface of a tiny comet. I had been following the expedition for the last few months as the pair made their lonely way across vast, empty regions of space. Along with millions of others, I shared the excitement of the scientists at the European Space Agency who had conceived this ambitious mission, and saw it to its thrilling conclusion.

Radio signals, travelling at the speed of light, ie, 186,000 miles per second, took half an hour to reach Rosetta, so Philae’s descent could not be controlled directly, but was made under pre-programmed computer instructions. The fact that the mission went off almost flawlessly is a huge triumph for the scientists and engineers involved.

Whenever mankind achieves this kind of major breakthrough, there are pedants who say that the money could have been better spent on building schools or hospitals. But the truth is that if this view had prevailed, we would not have wonders like the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids and Westminster Abbey. Money not spent on exploring the frontiers of knowledge, or creating things of lasting beauty, is seldom allocated to worthwhile projects; rather, it is wasted on armaments or tax cuts for the rich.

The data Philae has sent back in its short life will keep scientists busy for years. The analysis of the subsoil samples from the comet might unlock mysteries about the formation of the Solar System, and how life developed here on Earth. We might find out how water arrived on our planet. The fact that all this and more might be revealed because one small object the size of a washing machine landed on a speeding comet 300 million miles away fills me with wonder.

Mankind has travelled a very long distance from our early days as lowly primates that fought for survival against far larger predators. But ever since we began using primitive tools, we gradually mastered our habitat until we are now the dominant species. In fact, we have reached the point where we are in danger of destroying the planet by our own unthinking actions.

The optimist in me thinks the human spirit will survive this ecological disaster that threatens us today. In any case, we will need all the information we can get about our planet. While Frankenstein and his creature teach us about man’s arrogance and hubris, Rosetta and Philae have lessons for us about the power of the human intellect.

Published in Dawn, November 24th , 2014