I'm more and more interested in some of these 'old timers'.  I sense that things were somehow a little bit more 'open source' back in those days.

Huxley, for instance, is from a famous family of scientists, statesmen, etc.  He very likely would have been familiar with the cutting-edge science of the day.  This would include the research into psychology and physiology which were represented in his book.  Nearly 100 years ago when he wrote BNW there was the concept of in-utero hormone manipulations to create the freemartin condition in humans, or at least it was envisioned as possible.  And, of course, the use of psychotropic drugs to manipulate population behavior.  Now we are seeing some fairly striking shifts in sex expression in the population and 'prozak nation' and such.  The funny thing is that about the only thing people can get violently exited about anymore is when they dismiss any possibility that Huxley's visions might be coming to pass as 'conspiracy theories'.

I am also pretty interested in (Lord) Bertrand Russell.  Another person who was likely to be both intellectually capable of understating the cutting edge science of his day and hooked in enough to be exposed to it.  Link to some tid-bits.

I've not read Huxley's BNW for at least 25 years and have not fully read any of Lord Russell's books fully.  These are on my to-read-or-re-read list.

I ran across a 1958 bit of interview of Aldous Huxley a while ago.  I could not find the shorter version, but the full version is worth watching in full for anyone interested in thus stuff.