When Morbius appears, Adams and Ostrow learn that he has been studying the Krell, a highly advanced native race that perished overnight 200,000 years before. In a Krell laboratory, Morbius shows them a "plastic educator", a device capable of measuring and enhancing intellectual capacity. When Morbius first used it, he barely survived, but his intellect was permanently doubled. Morbius takes them on a tour of a gigantic Krell underground machine complex, a cube long on each side, still functioning and powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors, operating in tandem. Afterwards, Adams demands that Morbius turn over his discoveries to Earth. Morbius, however, states that "humanity is not yet ready to receive such limitless power".