The protagonist, Professor Hugo Pinero, builds a machine that will predict how long a person will live.
[2][3] "Life-Line" was later collected in The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein (1966), Expanded Universe (1980), and in a Baen edition of The Man Who Sold The Moon (1987).
One particular paragraph from "Life-Line" is often quoted in reference to (and criticism of) modern intellectual property rights:[4][5] There has grown in the minds of certain groups in this country the idea that just because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with guaranteeing such a profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest.
To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all important and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits.
To the academic mind, authority is everything and facts are junked when they do not fit theory laid down by authority.A television web series loosely based on the short story began in 2017.