What was Aldous Huxley's background in science, and how is it reflected in the novel Brave New World?

Aldous Huxley's brother, Julian
wrote,

The
more [science] discovers and the more comprehension it gives us of the mechanism of
existence, the more clearly does the mystery of existence itself stand
out.

Thus, although Huxley
had to abandon science because of his poor eyesight and turn to literature, his outlook
remained essentially scientific.  For the theme of his novel is stated by him in the
foreword to the novel: 

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The theme of Brave New World
is not the advancement of science as such; it is the advancement of science as it
affects human
individuals.

The Bokanovsky's
Process,the Podsnap's Technique, decanting, the scientific hypnopoediac conditioning,
the feelies, the fertility treatments, the Malthusian drill--these are all scientific
"advancements" that destroy and mitigate the humanity of the people of Brave
New World.

Rather interestingly, although
Huxley's Brave New World, which was published in 1932, contains a
radically pessimistic view of human nature in its antiutopia, with its eerie combination
of a totalitarian society and "ubiquitous feel-good drugs," and free sex, Huxley made
his home in California after the 1940s.  By the 1960s, ironically, Huxley himself had
embraced the drug culture promulgated by Timothy O'Leary, experimenting with mescaline
and LSD.  With his religious penchant at the time, Huxley felt that LSD and mescaline
gave users essentially the same experiences that mystics attained through prayer,
meditation, and fasting.  In fact, he wrote two books about the effects of psychedelic
drugs, The Doors of Perception (1954), and Heaven and Hell
(1956).

And, most ironically, as Huxley was dying from
cancer in 1963, he had LSD pumped through his veins--a scene reminiscient of the death
of John the Savage's mother, Linda.