The Andromeda Strain
| File:Andromeda Strain (BB cover).jpg Cover of Ballantine Books' Special Edition | |
| Author | Michael Crichton |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science Fiction Techno-thriller, Novel |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | May 12, 1969 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Hardcover Paperback Audio |
| Pages | 304 pages |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-394-41525-6 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
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The Andromeda Strain is a techno-thriller novel, by author Michael Crichton, about a team of scientists investigating a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin which causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood. This novel established Crichton as a best-selling author.
Plot summary
Template:Spoiler A US government satellite, "SCOOP," designed to find upper-atmosphere microorganisms for germ warfare, crash-landed near the village of Piedmont, Arizona (New Mexico in the movie). It brought back a mysterious organism that killed all but two of the town’s inhabitants, by almost-instantly clotting their blood to powder. They died in mid-step or went "quietly nuts" and committed bizarre suicide. Piedmont's only survivors, the sick, Sterno-addict, geriatric Peter Jackson and the constantly-crying infant, Jamie Ritter, were about as opposite as two humans could be. "We'll have the answer to this disease," said one scientist, "when we know why a sixty-two-year-old Sterno drinker with a bleeding ulcer is like a perfectly healthy two-month-old baby."
The elderly man and infant were 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 contained the same elements as terrestrial life, but lacked DNA, RNA, proteins, and amino acids. It worked by directly transforming matter to energy and energy to matter, "like a little reactor."
The lifeform, codenamed "Andromeda", mutated with each growth cycle, making its properties different every time. The scientists finally discovered that it was unable to grow outside of an extremely narrow pH range. This explained why Jackson and Ritter survived. 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 could reproduce. Ritter, the baby, constantly crying, blew off so much carbon dioxide from his blood that he became alkalotic: his blood was too alkaline.
By the time the scientists realize this, however, Andromeda had mutated into a form that no longer turned blood to powder. Instead, it degraded plastic "rubber" gaskets, exactly like the ones on every door and hatch in Wildfire. As seal after seal broke down into dust, an automatic mechanism began a three-minute countdown to the detonation of an atomic device, housed beneath the complex, designed to destroy all traces of escaped diseases before they could reach the surface. However, given its ability to generate matter directly from energy, Andromeda would only find the bomb "a fantastically rich growth medium."
To prevent the explosion, Dr. Mark Hall ran a deadly obstacle course of paralysis gas and poison darts to shut down the atomic self-destruct device before the bomb could detonate. He managed to shut down the device with thirty-four seconds to spare. "Plenty of time. Hardly even exciting," he quipped, not realizing that level V, the level that nearly all the scientists were on, would have completely decompressed at the 30 second mark.
Meanwhile, the escaped Andromeda mutated into a completely benign form and passed 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, burned up on re-entry as its polymer-based heat shielding had failed. All spaceflight attempts were discontinued until further notice.
Main 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
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.
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."
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.
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 also have a song called The Andromeda Strain which deals about genetically engineered biological weapons, on their latest album Room V.
Klaus Schulze has a concert recording named Andromeda Strain. It is a long and dark moody ambient passage that reminds 'death city' scenes from the beginning of the book.
References
- Crichton, Michael (1968). The Andromeda Strain. ISBN 0-345-37848-2.