Help identifying old Sci-Fi short story

I remember reading a short Sci-Fi story when i was younger but cannot remember the name...

I believe it was written by John Wyndham between the 1930’s and 1950’s...

It was a LONG time ago so i can’t remember all the details... however,

Two guys have a diving bell and are running experiments in a lab... I believe it was a new experimental form of x-ray or photography... When a photo is taken there is a flash and the capsule suddenly looks beaten and old... inside is the ancient skeleton of a human. It turns out that the capsule shrunk to microscopic size and reappeared in a universe that was contained within an atom (that existed in the lab)
Although the capsule had shrunk in size it still contained it original mass and acted like a super black hole... devouring the universe that it now existed in.

What took millions of years to destroy was only a fraction of a second in our universe, hence the skeleton, but the occupant had written a log of the events as they unfolded including witnessing the destruction of many worlds.

Anyway, I’m not describing it very well but you get the idea... if anyone recognises this story i would really appreciate knowing the name... The last time i read it i was about 12 years old

Thanks

Have a peek though here and im sure you may just find it, Its a list of the books he created,

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by asala


Thanks Asala... already tried that and couldn’t find it

My memory is not what it used to be so i could be wrong about the author... that’s why i thought I’d try my luck on BTS... I'm hoping someone recognises the story

It's not 'The Chrysalids', 'The Midwich Cuckoos', 'The Outward Urge' or 'Chocky'. I've read all of those by Wyndham, and your description doesn't match. That's all I've got for you :p

I'm usually pretty good at searches for this kind of thing, but I'm getting nuthin' on this one... Any other clues? Doesn't seem to be the right author, but I even omitted that, and can't find a match....

yeah sorry... the more i think about this the more i think it wasn’t Wyndham... I just come to that conclusion because i remember reading lots of Wyndham around the same time as i read this short story.

It was in a book that was basically a collection of sc-fi shorts...

Hmmm... maybe it was Aldous Huxley... i'll try searching for Huxley... sorry for any confusion


I was about 12 at the time so that’s a looong time ago


Oh... I’ve just had another thought... In the book... the scientist, who is in the capsule that destroys the universe, scribbles the quote...

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."


Well... this is a quote from Robert Oppenheimer, the famous physicist, and i know that this quote was in reference to his work on the first nuclear bomb (The Manhatten project)... so i would say that this puts the book in the late 1940's to 1960's.






[edit on 12-3-2010 by Muckster]

Oppenheimer did say that, but he himself was quoting from one of the Vedas or some other ancient Indian book, so it could be much older than the Manhattan Project.

reply to post by DragonsDemesne


Yes very true... however it was Oppenheimer who made the quote famous in the west... hence my assumption!!

You are correct though so i guess we cant rule out anything predating WW2

I've looked six ways to Sunday, and I've got nothing matching that storyline... I'm stumped....

reply to post by Gazrok


Yeah sorry... i know it’s a nightmare

My last shot is next time I’m at my mums, I’m gonna go through her garage (where she keep all the junk and old keepsakes) in the hope that the original book is hiding away there!!!

If not, i think that maybe I’ll have to admit defeat... thanks for your help though