The Andromeda Strain (1969) is a techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton. The plot concerns 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. This article is about the 1971 film. ... Michael Crichton, pronounced [1], (born October 23, 1942) is an American author, film producer, film director, and television producer. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Techno-thrillers are a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from spy thrillers, war novels, and science fiction. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Colophon of the publisher Alfred A. Knopf. ... is the 132nd day of the year (133rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (number) 1969 (movie) 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... ISBN redirects here. ... Techno-thrillers are a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from spy thrillers, war novels, and science fiction. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... Michael Crichton, pronounced [1], (born October 23, 1942) is an American author, film producer, film director, and television producer. ... Green people redirects here. ... A thrombus is the final product of blood coagulation, through the aggregation of platelets and the activation of the humoral coagulation system. ...

Plot summary

A military satellite returns to earth, and a recovery team, in a single van, to avoid suspicion, is sent out to retrieve the satellite by radio detection. While on a live radio connection to the military base, the recovery team dies. A photo surveillance plane is sent to discover what has happened, and discovers the small town where the van went through to be obliterated, apparently the entire population has been killed. The base commander, upon seeing the film returned by the plane, dials a special tie line number in which a recording takes his message urging that the Wildfire team be activated because of a suspected extraterrestrial organism having been brought to earth. For other uses, see Satellite (disambiguation). ... English Electric Canberra PR.9 photo reconnaissance aircraft CP-140 Aurora long-range patrol aircraft of the Canadian Air Force. ...

The primary team is a group of five male scientists (in the movie, Dr. Leavitt is a woman) who would be useful in determining the means to solve the problem of an extraterrestrial biological infestation (a disease or parasite infecting earth). Dr. Stone has specialized in molecular biology; Dr. Leavitt is a specialist in disease pathology; Dr. Burton has specialized in infection vectors; and Dr. Hall is a surgeon with special interest in biochemistry and pH factors. The fifth member, Dr. Kirke, a specialist in electrolytes, is unable to be called up because he is undergoing surgery for appendicitis. For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... A renal cell carcinoma (chromophobe type) viewed on a hematoxylin & eosin stained slide Pathologist redirects here. ... In epidemiology, a vector is an organism that does not cause disease itself but which spreads infection by conveying pathogens from one host to another. ... Biochemistry (from Greek: , bios, life and Egyptian kÄ“me, earth[1]) is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms. ... For other uses, see PH (disambiguation). ... An electrolyte is a substance which dissociates free ions when dissolved (or molten), to produce an electrically conductive medium. ... Appendicitis (or epityphlitis) is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix[1]. While mild cases may resolve without treatment, most require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. ...

The team of scientists have to find a cure to this terrible "disease" that has appeared in a small town in Arizona. They think the satellite that was designed to find upper-atmosphere microorganisms for germ warfare crash-landed in the town of Piedmont (New Mexico in the movie). It brought an organism that kills by clotting blood to powder. On investigating the town it is discovered that the residents of the town die in mid-stride or go "quietly nuts" and commit bizarre suicide. Piedmont's only survivors, the sick, Sterno-addicted, geriatric Peter Jackson and the always-crying infant, Jamie Ritter, are about as opposite as two humans can be. "We'll have the answer to this disease," says one scientist, "when we know why a sixty-nine-year-old Sterno drinker with a bleeding ulcer is like a perfectly healthy two-month-old baby." Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a pathological process in the body where the blood starts to coagulate throughout the whole body. ... Sterno® Canned Heat™ is a chafing fuel made from denatured and jellied alcohol. ...

The man and infant are taken, along with the downed satellite, to the secret "Wildfire" laboratory, in Flatrock, Nevada (the location is stated as being about 60 miles from Las Vegas), for study. More investigation determines that the causative agent of the bizarre deaths is a crystal-based extraterrestrial life form that contains the same chemical elements as life on earth, but lacks DNA, RNA, proteins, and amino acids. It works by directly transforming matter to energy and energy to matter, "like a little reactor." Wildfire or wildfire has various meanings:- A wildfire is an uncontrolled fire in wildland Wildfire is the name of the secret underground biological testing facility in the book and movie The Andromeda Strain. ... For further information, see Las Vegas metropolitan area and Las Vegas Strip. ... A chemical element, often called simply element, is a substance that cannot be divided or changed into different substances by ordinary chemical methods. ... The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. ... Left: An RNA strand, with its nitrogenous bases. ... A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. ... This article is about the class of chemicals. ...

The life form, codenamed "Andromeda" mutates with each growth making its properties change. The scientists discover that it only grows within a narrow range of pH, from 7.39 to 7.43-- precisely the same range as normal human blood. This explains why Jackson and Ritter survived: both had abnormal blood. By the time the scientists notice this, however, Andromeda has mutated into a form that no longer turns blood to powder. Instead, it degrades plastic -— exactly what the doors and hatches in Wildfire are made out of. As seal after seal breaks, an automatic mechanism begins a countdown to the detonation of an atomic device, housed beneath the complex and designed to destroy (through a 2-million degree incineration) all traces of diseases before they reach the surface. However, given its ability to generate matter directly from energy, Andromeda would only find the bomb a bigger energy source. As Dr. Stone says to Hall, "When the bomb goes off there'll be a thousand mutations, Andromeda will spread everywhere, they'll never be rid of it!" For other uses, see PH (disambiguation). ... Human blood smear: a - erythrocytes; b - neutrophil; c - eosinophil; d - lymphocyte. ...

To prevent the explosion, Hall runs through an obstacle course (including navigating an air vent while being shot full of monkey tranquilisers by automated containment systems) to shut down the atomic self-destruct device before it detonates. He shuts down the device with 34 seconds to spare. "Plenty of time. Hardly even exciting," he says, not realizing that level V, the level that nearly all the scientists were on, would have completely decompressed to vacuum at the 30 second mark. (In the movie, Hall shuts down the reactor with only eight seconds to spare.) The virus is allowed to escape, because by this time, it has become the best adapted virus on the planet- one which does nothing to the detriment of the host, and thus can exist and spread without the possibility of wiping out its host species, and without challenge from the immune system.

An epilogue to the novel reveals that a manned spacecraft, Andros V, burned up on re-entry as its polymer-based heat shielding failed. All spaceflight attempts were discontinued until further notice.

Odd Man Hypothesis

The “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 by the RAND Corporation on a series of tests where people were given command decisions to make during a hypothetical nuclear, biological or chemical crisis. This was repeated in the film: Look up Hypothesis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces. ...

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 Kirk's knowledge of electrolytes. An electrolyte is a substance which dissociates free ions when dissolved (or molten), to produce an electrically conductive medium. ...

The fabrication of a scientific principle with supportive numbers and charts belongs to a literary technique called false document. A literary technique or literary device may be used in works of literature in order to produce a specific effect on the reader. ... A false document is a form of verisimilitude that attempts to create in the reader (viewer, audience, etc. ...

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 University

Dr. Peter Leavitt (changed to Dr. Ruth Leavitt in the movie)

Clinical microbiologist; suffering from epilepsy

Dr. Mark Hall

Medical doctor and surgeon

Peter Jackson

Sole adult survivor of the Piedmont disaster

Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ... Baylor University is a private, Baptist-affiliated research university located in Waco, Texas. ...

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 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."

Adaptations

The book was the basis for a 1971 film of the same name, directed by Robert Wise and starring Arthur Hill as Stone, James Olson as Hall, Kate Reid as Leavitt, and David Wayne as Burton. This article is about the 1971 film. ... Robert Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was a sound effects editor, film editor, and Academy Award-winning American film producer and director. ... Arthur Hill (born August 1, 1922 in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada) is an actor in British and American theater, movies and TV. He attended the University of British Columbia and continued his acting studies in Seattle, Washington. ... James Olson (born October 8th, 1930) is an american actor from Evanston, Illinois and graduate of Northwestern University who did stage work in and around Chicago before his 1956 film debut in The Sharkfighters. ... Kate Daphne Reid (4 November 1930 – 27 March 1993) was a Canadian actress. ... David Wayne (January 30, 1914 - February 9, 1995) was a Tony Award-winning American actor with a career spanning nearly half a century. ...

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. On May 2, 2007 it was mentioned on SciFi channel's news website (The SciFi Wire) that the long- awaited miniseries will now be shown on the A&E Network and has the potential to run up to six hours. Also, on August 16th, 2007, cast and crew filmed at Simon Fraser University Surrey.[1] SCI FI (originally The Sci-Fi Channel, sometimes rendered SCI FI Channel when part of a longer phrase) is an American cable television channel, launched on September 24, 1992, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal programming. ... A miniseries (sometimes mini-series), in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. ... Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields, South Tyneside) is a British film director and producer. ... Anthony D. L. Tony Scott (born July 21, 1944) is a British film director. ... Frank Darabont (born on January 28, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. ... Biography is one of A&Es longest-running and most popular programs. ... SFU Surrey is a satellite campus of Simon Fraser University. ...

The science fiction-themed death metal band Nocturnus have a song inspired by the novel, called Andromeda Strain, on their debut album The Key. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... This article is about the musical genre. ... Nocturnus was an American progressive death metal band formed in Tampa, Florida in 1987 by drummer/vocalist Mike Browning (formely of Morbid Angel). ... The Key was the first full-length studio album from Florida, USA death metal band, Nocturnus. ...

Progressive metal-band Shadow Gallery also have a song called The Andromeda Strain which deals about genetically engineered biological weapons, on their album Room V. Progressive metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music which blends the powerful, guitar-driven sound of metal with the complex compositional structures, odd time signatures, and intricate instrumental playing of progressive rock. ... Shadow Gallery is a six-piece American progressive metal band formed in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania during the early 1980s, originally under the name Sorcerer. ... Biological Weapons: Friend or Foe? By Dom Harris There is great debate about whether biological weapons are good or bad, and whether the world should be concerned about their development. ... Room V is the fifth album by the progressive metal group Shadow Gallery, released in 2005 (see 2005 in music). ...

Klaus Schulze has a concert recording named Andromeda Strain. Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. ...

References

• Crichton, Michael (1969). The Andromeda Strain. ISBN 0-345-37848-2.