The Andromeda Strain (1969), by Michael Crichton, is a techno-thriller novel documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that rapidly and fatally clots human blood. The infected show ebola-like symptoms and die within two minutes. This novel established Michael Crichton as a best-selling genre author.
Easton Press Michael Crichton books
The Andromeda Strain - Signed Modern Classic - 2003
Jurassic Park - Signed Limited Edition - 2008
The Lost World - 2008
The Great Train Robbery - 2013
Timeline - 2014
Dragon Teeth - 2017
Sphere - 2017
Franklin Library Michael Crichton books
Travels - signed first edition - 1988
Jurassic Park - signed first edition - 1990
Rising Sun - signed first edition - 1992
Disclosure - signed first edition - 1993
The Lost World - signed first edition - 1995
Airframe - signed first edition - 1996
Summary
When a military satellite returns to Earth, a recovery team is dispatched to retrieve it; during a live radio communication with their base, the team members suddenly die. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town near the satellite's landing site, is apparently dead. The base commander suspects the satellite returned with an extraterrestrial organism and recommends activating Wildfire, the government-sponsored team that counters extraterrestrial biological infestation.
The Wildfire scientific team studying the unknown strain comprises Dr. Jeremy Stone, molecular biology specialist; Dr. Peter Leavitt, disease pathology; Dr. Charles Burton, infection vectors specialist; and Dr. Mark Hall, M.D., Surgeon, biochemistry and pH specialist. A fifth scientist, Dr. Christian Kirke, electrolytes specialist, was unavailable for duty because of appendicitis.
The scientists believe the satellite, which was actually designed to capture upper-atmosphere microorganisms for bio-weapon exploitation, returned with a deadly microorganism that kills by disseminated intravascular coagulation. On investigating the town, the Wildfire team discovers that the residents either died in mid-stride or went "quietly nuts" and committed bizarre suicides. Two Piedmont inhabitants, the sick, Sterno-addicted, geriatric, Peter Jackson, and the constantly-bawling infant, Jamie Ritter, are biologic opposites who somehow survived the organism.
The man, infant, and satellite are taken to the secret underground Wildfire laboratory in Flatrock, Nevada, sixty miles from Las Vegas. Further investigation determines that the bizarre deaths were caused by a sulfur-based, crystal-structured, extraterrestrial microbe on a meteor that crashed into the satellite, knocking it from orbit. The microbe contains chemical elements required for terrestrial life, but lacks DNA, RNA, proteins, and amino acids, yet it directly transforms matter to energy and vice versa.
The microbe, code named "Andromeda", mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biologic properties. The scientists learn that Andromeda grows only within a narrow pH range; in a too-acid or too-basic growth medium, it will not multiply - Andromeda's pH range is 7.39–7.43, like that of human blood. Thus, that is why Jackson and Ritter survived, both had abnormal blood pH; however, by the time the scientists realize that, Andromeda's current mutation degrades polymer plastic and escapes its containment. Trapped in an Andromeda-contaminated laboratory, Dr. Burton demands that Stone inject him with Kalocin ("the universal antibiotic"); Stone refuses, arguing it would render Burton too vulnerable to infection by other harmful bacteria. Burton survives because Andromeda has already mutated to nonlethal form.
The mutated Andromeda attacks the neoprene door and hatch seals within the Wildfire complex, racing to the upper levels and the surface. The self-destruction atomic bomb is automatically armed when it detects a containment breach, triggering its detonation countdown to incinerate all exo-biological diseases. As the bomb arms, the scientists realize that given Andromeda's ability to generate matter directly from energy, the organism would feed, reproduce, and ultimately benefit from an atomic explosion.
To halt the atomic detonation, Dr. Hall must insert his special key to an emergency substation anywhere in Wildfire. Unfortunately, he is trapped in an unfinished section with no substation. He must navigate Wildfire's obstacle course of automatic defenses to reach a working substation on an upper level. He barely disarms the bomb in time. Andromeda eventually mutates to a benign form and is suspected to have migrated to the upper atmosphere, where the oxygen content is lower, better suiting Andromeda's growth.
The novel's epilogue reveals that a manned spacecraft, Andros V, was incinerated in atmospheric re-entry, because its polymer heat shield failed. Space flights are discontinued until further notice.
Odd-Man Hypothesis
The "Odd-Man Hypothesis" is a fictional hypothesis articulated in the novel's story and named in the film. In the novel, the Odd-Man explanation is a page in a RAND Corporation report of the results of test series wherein different people (married, unmarried men and women) were to make command decisions in a nuclear - and biological wars and chemical crisis. This is 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 better able to execute the best, most dispassionate decisions in crises - in this case, to disarm the nuclear weapon intended to prevent the escape of organisms from the laboratory in the event the automatic destruct sequence is triggered.
Statistics follow, Group: Index of Effectiveness: 0.343 for married men, 0.946 for single, male scientists, et cetera; then each scientist's command decision effectiveness index: Stone 0.687, Burton 0.543, Kirke 0.614, Leavitt 0.601, and Hall 0.899; thus, Dr. Hall is given the key to halt (if necessary) the Wildfire Laboratory's automated self-destruction. Moreover, considering Kirke's knowledge of electrolytes, Leavitt admits that the Odd-Man Hypothesis is essentially why Hall was drafted to the Wildfire team.
In both book and film, Hall is briefed on the Hypothesis after his arrival at Wildfire. In the film, he is criticized for failure to read the material ahead of time, while in the book, his copy of the briefing materials has the Hypothesis pages removed.
This fabrication of scientific documentation (numbers, charts, etc.) is part of the false document literary technique.
Main characters
Dr. Jeremy Stone
Professor of bacteriology at University of California, Berkeley; a Nobel Prize winner
Dr. Charles Burton
Professor of pathology at Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Peter Leavitt
Clinical microbiologist; suffering from epilepsy
Dr. Mark Hall
Medical doctor and surgeon
Andromeda Strain quotes
“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 than they did about their own.”
“First contact with extraterrestrial life will be determined by the known probabilities 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."
Source and additional information: The Andromeda Strain
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