

DNA was not accurately described until 1953, when Watson and Crick (with help) came up with the now ubiquitous double-helix structure. Now, from the Department of Pickypicky: DNA was discovered in 1869, and researchers gradually came to suspect it had a role in heredity, but that role was not identified until 1943 and not proven until 1952. The Difference Between "Shade" and "Shadow".Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below: The headline about gene editing is especially on point.Ĭareful writers will not use the phrase “brave new world” if all they mean is “a new set of circumstances.” The phrase belongs only in a context of dehumanization or oppressive surveillance.īrave New World entered the public domain in 2008. Should any of these designer people grow up to be nonconformists, they are exiled to remote locations. DNA is manipulated so as to produce three castes of people designed to be happy with different types of work. The goal is to eliminate such inconveniences as disease and human dissatisfaction. The second set of headline examples seems to have been written by people who know what Huxley’s novel is about.īrave New World is set in a future in which technology has reorganized human reproduction so as to produce babies in laboratories. In any case, to speak of “a brave new world” of wine or basketball doesn’t make a lot of sense. Miranda, impressed by the appearance of the courtly strangers, was probably using the word with this meaning. In Shakespeare’s day brave could mean splendid, showy, grand, fine, and handsome.

We speak of “brave soldiers” and “brave explorers” who risk danger to do their work. Modern speakers use brave to mean courageous, daring, intrepid, and stouthearted. Writers who use the phrase as if it has a positive connotation misunderstand Shakespeare’s use of brave. When Aldous Huxley chose the phrase as the title of his 1932 novel about a future in which society is carefully organized and monitored, he was echoing the idea that what might appear to be wondrous at first glance may in fact be evil.

The irony is that five of the eight men who come ashore are not “goodly” at all they are dirty rotten scoundrels who represent all that is evil and corrupt in the “civilized” world of Europe. Miranda is speaking of the men whom her father-Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan- has caused to be shipwrecked on their island. How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, How many goodly creatures are there here! When he put the expression in Miranda’s mouth in The Tempest, he was being ironic. Welcome To The Brave New World Of The Corporate-Sponsored ArtistĬubicles Rise in a Brave New World of Publishingīecause “brave new world” is an expression loaded with negative connotations, some of these uses are more appropriate than others. Internet Eavesdropping: A Brave New World of Wiretapping Why We Need To Talk Now About The Brave New World Of Editing Genes High School Basketball: Brave new world in regionals The phrase “brave new world” is popular in headlines used to introduce a variety of topics:
