Science of Michael Crichton: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind the Fictional Worlds of Michael Crichton (Smart Pop) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933771321 ISBN 13: 9781933771328

Verlag: Smart Pop, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

Wherever the cutting edge of science goes, Michael Crichton is there. From dinosaur cloning to global warming, nanotechnology to time travel, animal behavior to human genetics, Crichton always takes us to the cutting edge of science and then pushes the envelope.

The Science of Michael Crichton examines the amazing inventions of Crichton’s books and lifts up the hood, revealing the science underneath.

In intelligent and well-thought essays, scholars and experts decide what Crichton gets right and what he gets wrong. They examine which Crichton imaginings are feasible and which are just plain impossible. Scenarios examined include whether dinosaurs can be cloned, if nanotechnological particles can evolve intelligence, and if we can go back in time.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kevin Grazier, PhD, is the science advisor for the Sci-Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica and Eureka and the PBS animated series The Zula Patrol. He also works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He splits his time living in Sylmar, California, and Mesa, Arizona.

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The Science of Michael Crichton

An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind the Fictional Worlds of Michael Crichton

By Kevin R. Grazier

BenBella Books, Inc.

Copyright © 2008 Kevin R. Grazier, Ph.D.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-933771-32-8

Contents

INTRODUCTION, 
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, 
VIRTUAL REALITY AND MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE IN DISCLOSURE AND THE TERMINAL MAN, 
SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM, 
NEANDERTHALS AND WENDOLS, 
PRIMATE BEHAVIOR AND MISBEHAVIOR IN MICHAEL CRICHTON'S CONGO, 
WE STILL CAN'T CLONE DINOSAURS, 
CRICHTON TRAVELS IN TIME, 
ARTIFICIAL LIFE IN MICHAEL CRICHTON'S PREY, 
BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID: MICHAEL CRICHTON'S STATE OF FEAR, 
SCIENCE COMES SECOND IN NEXT, 

CHAPTER 1

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN

SERGIO PISTOI

On 28 September 1969 the Murchison meteorite fell in Victoria, Australia. Within that meteorite were compounds related to sugars, and more than seventy amino acids — the building blocks of earthly life — fifty of which are not present on Earth. On the Space Shuttle Atlantis mission STS-115, twenty-seven years later, Salmonella typhimurium bacteria showed a dramatic increase in virulence as a result of space fight. Sergio Pistoi, Ph.D., examines The Andromeda Strain which, suddenly, seems really quite plausible.

This book recounts the five-day history of a major American scientific crisis.

As in most crises, the events surrounding the Andromeda Strain were a compound of foresight and foolishness, innocence and ignorance. Nearly everyone involved had moments of great brilliance, and moments of unaccountable stupidity.

— MICHAEL CRICHTON, foreword to The Andromeda Strain

LATE 1960s. A secret military satellite, sent into deep space by the army to look for new forms of life, crashes near a small village in Arizona, spreading a mysterious and deadly extraterrestrial organism. People coming into contact with the organism die instantly, because the bug causes all their blood to clot solid. It's something nobody has ever seen on Earth. Something that could potentially destroy humanity if it spread.

The Andromeda Strain recounts the drama of four scientists fighting against that lethal creature from space. Researchers start by exploring the village and by collecting samples of the mysterious organism, while the army isolates the area. They still have no idea of what they are facing, and they don't know how to stop that deadly invasion. But they have found two survivors — an old, alcohol-addicted man and an always-crying newborn baby. Whatever the old man and the baby have in common, it must hold the key to understanding how the deadly organism works and how it can be stopped.

Michael Crichton published The Andromeda Strain in 1969, when he was still a graduate student at the Harvard Medical School. It was his first bestseller, making him known worldwide as an emerging literary star. The story has all the ingredients of a great bio-thriller, and at the same time reflects Crichton's medical and scientific background and his ability to mix real science with creative, but plausible fiction. Crichton wrote the novel in a false-document style, mixing references to real scientific publications and to fictional "classified" documents, like he was recounting real events. Also, the portraits of researchers are quite realistic in the way they collect data about the organism (codenamed Andromeda, hence the title) and use scientific knowledge and intuition to formulate hypotheses about its nature. It's also interesting that, apart from the inevitable science fiction touch, much of the equipment and methods described in the book reflects the best technology available during the 1960s.

Consistently with its extraterrestrial nature, Andromeda is astonishingly different from any known form of life; it has no proteins, no DNA, and none of the other building blocks that are typical of terrestrial organisms. Surprisingly, it has the structure of a crystal, something that we associate with inorganic objects such as minerals, not with a living organism. If judged with terrestrial criteria, Andromeda cannot be living. Still, it behaves like a living organism: it is able to reproduce and to infect its victims and, as it will turn out later in the story, it can mutate very rapidly, adapting to its environment.

How plausible is this scenario? Based on scientific evidence, can we imagine alien organisms like Andromeda, so far from our idea of life? if so, how could we protect the Earth from the invasion of alien pests? As weird as they sound, these questions are not just science fiction buffs' speculations, but also the subject of many serious and fascinating scientific investigations. But first of all, before you laugh at the idea of a living crystal, ask yourself a question: What do you exactly mean by "life"?

A MATTER OF TASTE

Surprisingly, a simple question like "What is a living organism?" has no clear-cut answer. All attempts to scientifically define what is and isn't alive have failed miserably. Of course, we can list some features that are closely associated with life: living organisms are able to reproduce, passing their genes to their offspring; they constantly maintain their internal equilibrium, even when their environment changes (a property that biologists call homeostasis); and they have a metabolism that allows them to transform and store energy. However, none of these features alone can define life beyond reasonable doubt. For example, not all the individuals of a species reproduce. I don't have children, but I was alive last time I checked. On the other hand, many objects are capable of homeostasis and are able to transform energy. Imagine what would happen if an alien landed on a farm while looking for signs of life on Earth and found only a refrigerator and a bag of seeds. Which of the two would look more "alive"? A refrigerator is capable of homeostasis (because its thermostat actively maintains a constant internal temperature and humidity) and it transforms energy, while the seeds are as inert as stones. You could argue that a refrigerator does not reproduce, but neither do the seeds in the bag, unless they are planted and kept in the right conditions to germinate. In terms of pure evidence, and according to our criteria, the alien would understandably dismiss the seeds as objects, asking to be taken to the refrigerator's leader instead.

But we all know that the seeds, not the refrigerator, are the living stuff in the room. So where's the catch? There is no catch. We can tell that the seeds are living organisms because we know they are part of a biological cycle: although they look inanimate, we know that they have a potential to germinate, giving rise to a plant. Likewise, we say that a refrigerator is not an organism because we know it is a human artifact without any life on its own and without a potential to reproduce. In other words, we cannot define life a priori, but we can recognize it based on what we know about life on Earth.

Our definition of life is so blurred that, eighty years after their discovery, scientists are still debating whether viruses can be considered alive or not. Strictly speaking, viruses are unable to meet the minimum requirements by which we define life: they are sorts of genomic capsules made of proteins and containing a payload of DNA or RNA. Since they cannot read and copy their own genome, like malicious software viruses they must...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Smart Pop
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1933771321
• ISBN 13: 9781933771328
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 173
• Herausgeber: Grazier Ph.D. Kevin R.
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar