"Anachronism: a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists." How does the idea of anachronism come up in the study of literature and science? Many scientific ideas have relatively short lives as newer understandings displace older conceptions. These same scientific conceptions are also intertwined with traditional as well as modern and contemporary convictions and patterns of thought. One way to do literature and science scholarship is by turning critical attention to the unfolding of these crumpled-up historical matters. Moreover, the genre of science fiction is an especially sensitive seismometer of cultural shifts and tremors. This talk featuring Dr. Bruce Clarke, Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Literature and Science, will bring these considerations to bear on H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The War of the Worlds, and Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End.