The Andromeda Strain
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- This article is about the novel. For the movie, see The Andromeda Strain (film).
| Author | Michael Crichton |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Released | May 12, 1969 |
The Andromeda Strain is a techno-thriller novel by author Michael Crichton about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin which causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood. This book was the novel which established Crichton as a bestselling author.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
A USA government "SCOOP" satellite, designed to find upper atmosphere microorganisms for germ warfare, crashes near the village of Piedmont in Arizona (New Mexico in the movie). It has brought back a mysterious organism that kills all but two of the town’s inhabitants by almost instantly solidifying their blood into a powder. They literally die in mid-step or go "quietly nuts" and kill themselves in bizarre ways. Piedmont's only survivors, sick, geriatric Peter Jackson and constantly crying infant Manuel Rojas, are about as opposite as two humans could be. "We'll have the answer to this disease," says one scientist, "when we know why a 62 year old Sterno drinker with a bleeding ulcer is like a perfectly healthy two month old baby."
The elderly man and infant are airlifted, along with the SCOOP satellite, to the secret "Wildfire" underground laboratory in Nevada for study. Extensive investigation determines that the causative agent of the bizarre deaths is a crystal-based extraterrestrial lifeform that contains the same elements as terrestrial life, but is lacking DNA/RNA, proteins and amino acids. It transforms matter into energy and energy into matter directly, "like a little reactor." "That's impossible," says one scientist. "There's nothing on earth can do that!" His coleague's ominous answer is "You mean, until now..."
The lifeform, code named Andromeda,(formula CHON, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen) mutates with each growth cycle, making it extremely hard to kill. The scientists finally discover it is vulnerable to changes in acidity and alkalinity. This explains Jackson and Rojas. Jackson's Sterno drinking, and habit of taking huge amounts of aspirin for his painful ulcer, acidified his blood beyond the range in which Andromeda can live. The baby Rojas, constantly crying, blows off so much carbon dioxide from his blood that he is alkalotic: having too little acid.
Unfortunately, by the time the scientists realize this, Andromeda has mutated into a form that no longer turns blood to powder. It degrades rubber gaskets, exactly like the ones on every door and hatch in Wildfire. As seal after seal breaks down into dust, an automatic mechanism begins to countdown to the detonation of a nuclear weapon, housed beneath the complex, designed to eradicate all traces of escaped diseases before they can reach the surface. However, given its ability to generate matter directly from energy, Andromeda will only find the bomb "a fantastially rich growth medium." "We'll never be rid of it!" cries the team leader as the countdown clocks move toward atomic self-destruct.
In an attempt to prevent the explosion, one scientist (Dr. Mark Hall) runs a deadly obstacle course of paralysis gas, poison darts, lasers and human panic to shut down atomic self-destruct before the bomb can detonate. He is successful, with thirty-four seconds to spare. "Not even exciting," quips one relieved scientist, not realizing that level V, the level that all the scientists are on, would have completely decompressed at the 30 second mark.
Meanwhile, the escaped Andromeda mutates into a non-lethal form and passes over Los Angeles with no effect, eventually moving back up into the oxygen-poor, radiation-rich upper atmosphere from which SCOOP had removed it in the first place.
An epilogue to the novel reveals that a manned spacecraft, Andros V, has burned up on reentry as its polymer-based heat shielding had failed. All spaceflight attempts will be discontinued until further notice. This suggests that the Andromeda organism had been aimed at Earth to curtail any attempts to explore space.
[edit] Characters in "The Andromeda Strain"
- Dr. Jeremy Stone
- professor of bacteriology at University of California, Berkeley; a Nobel Prize winner
- Charlie Burton
- professor of pathology at Baylor University
- Dr. Peter Leavitt
- clinical microbiologist; suffering from epilepsy
- Dr. Mark Hall
- medical doctor and surgeon
[edit] Odd Man Hypothesis
The “Robertson Odd Man Hypothesis” is a fictional hypothesis articulated in the book and also mentioned by name in the film. In the book the explanation is presented as a page from a report, a method repeated in the film:
- “Results of special testing confirm the Odd Man Hypothesis, that an unmarried male should carry out command decisions involving thermonuclear or chem-biol destruct contexts.”
The Odd Man Hypothesis states that unmarried men are capable of carrying out the best, most dispassionate decisions in crisis situations. A page of statistics is then shown, titled “Group: Index of Effectiveness,” ranging from .343 for married males to .946 for single male scientists. Then listing the same for each of the main characters (Stone .687, Burton .543, Kirke .614, Leavitt .601, Hall .899). Thus, Hall is given the one and only control key to halt, if necessary, the automated self-destruct system built into the Wildfire base. Leavitt also admits that the Odd Man Hypothesis is essentially the only reason for Hall’s assignment to the Wildfire team, in lieu of Hall’s knowledge of electrolytes.
The fabrication of a scientific principle with supportive numbers and charts belongs to a literary technique called false document.
[edit] Quotes from the book
- “A man with binoculars. That is how it began: with a man standing by the side of the road, on a crest overlooking a small Arizona town, on a winter night. Lieutenant Roger Shawn must have found the binoculars difficult. The metal would be cold, and he would be clumsy in his fur parka and heavy gloves.“
- “…biology, the retarded child… Even in the time of Newton and Galileo, men knew more about the moon and other heavenly bodies that they did about their own.”
- “…first contact with extraterrestrial life will be determined by the known probablities of speciation… complex organisms are rare on earth… simple organisms flourish in abundance… there are millions of bacteria, thousands of insects but few primates… frequency of speciation goes a corresponding frequency in numbers… human interaction with extra terrestrial will… [be] identical to bacteria or viruses.”
- “…it was equally possible for extra terrestrial to contaminate the earth via space probes.”
- "We've faced up to quite a planning problem here. How to disinfect the human body — one of the dirtiest things in the known universe — without killing the person at the same time."
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The book was the basis for a 1971 film of the same name, directed by Robert Wise and starring Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid, and David Wayne. {At the end of the movie "The Andromeda Strain" floats over the Pacific Ocean and is carried by artificaly seeded rain into the sea where the ocean salts will destroy it. The last movie teaser shows the "Strain" dissolving into computer numbers which stop at "601"-a computer number which tells too much information at the same time.}
In September 2004, the Sci Fi Channel announced it would begin production of a miniseries, executive produced by Ridley and Tony Scott and Frank Darabont. As of January 2006, no further details are available. [Possibly, the spectacular crash of NASA's Genesis probe had an influence in non-pursuance of the project.]
The science fiction-themed death metal band Nocturnus have a song inspired by the novel, called Andromeda Strain, on their debut album The Key.
Progressive Metal-band Shadow Gallery have also a song called The Andromeda Strain which deals about genetically engineered biological weapons, on their latest album Room V.
[edit] References
- Crichton, Michael (1968). The Andromeda Strain. ISBN 0-345-37848-2.de:Andromeda (Roman)
