The Andromeda Strain By Michael Crichton

Over the summer, I read The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. I really enjoyed this book. Something I noticed though, throughout the book, is that there were a few “Aha” moments for the characters when they found or figured out important pieces of information. One of these moments happened quite early in the story, when the scientists found the surviving infant and old man in the town of Piedmont, Arizona. The scientists who made this incredible discovery then had to figure out how and why those two people had survived a deadly virus while the rest of the town didn’t. The scientists then found what the two survivors had in common and used that knowledge to stop the strain from spreading rapidly.

In his book, The Great Influenza, John M. Barry speaks of the work of scientists with the sort of reverence and respect of one who understands the complexity and greatness of their work. He uses juxtaposition and conceit to present the adversity and nobility inherent to scientific research. In addition, he portrays this research as potentially thankless work.

"Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error…" (John Hopkins Medicine). This soaring number has caused medical errors to become the third leading cause of death in the United States. For many people, medicine seems foreign and unknown. People who have lost loved ones due to medical error desperately look for a reason, and many times that blame falls upon doctors. Media has put a negative connotation on doctors as well, causing their reputation to plummet whenever a hospital procedure turns badly. A renown surgeon and author, Atul Gawande, uses his knowledge and experience to give people a new perspective on medicine. In the article "When Doctors Make Mistakes," Gawande uses rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos to prove the need for a change in the medical systems and procedures. He analyzes how the public looks at doctors, giving a new perspective to enlighten the reader that even the best doctors can make mistakes.

Atul Gawande in his article “When the Doctor Makes Mistakes” exposes the mystery, uncertainty and fallibility of medicine in true stories that involve real patients. In a society where attorneys protect hospitals and physicians from zealous trials from clients following medical errors, doctors make mistakes is a testimony that Gawande a representative of other doctors speak openly about failures within the medical fields. In this article, Gawande exposes those errors with an intention of showing the entire society and specifically those within the medicine field that when errors are hidden, learning is squelched and those within the system are provided with an opportunity to continue committing the same errors. What you find when you critically analyse Gawande, “When Doctors Make Mistakes essay is how messy and uncertain medicine turns out to be. Throughout the entire article you experience the havoc within the medicine field as the inexperienced doctor misapplies a central line in a patient.

Survival in a life or death situation is completely circumstantial and unpredictable.Laurence Gonzales’s central idea about survival in his essay “Deep Survival” is that it requires a positive mental attitude. Gonzales supports this claim by stating “...only by researching and dissecting the mysterious quality..called positive attitude would [he] ever understand survival” (334). Gonzales has presented a correct definition of a positive mindset as the most important tool in survival.A positive mindset compels a person to stay calm,make rational decisions and prevent them from giving up.

In his affirmations, Crichton portrays the narrative of the Andromeda Strain as an "story of heroism and intelligence." Although the researchers commit numerous errors, they do seek after their assignment with valor and determination. In any case, they indicate prescience in imagining the likelihood of an outsider microscopic organisms coming to earth in a returning satellite. Stone specifically is a visionary on the grounds that he is one of only a handful of researchers who seriously consider Rudolph Karp's case to have found microbes in meteors . Amid the emergency, the researchers run about their errands with rationale and accuracy. They are constant in their quest for information, getting little rest amid the four days the emergency endures.

Over 400,000 people in the U.S have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Every day they struggle walking, or they are spastic. Mairs has perfectly described her day to day struggle with M.S. which usually results in paralysis. Mairs does not like being called ‘Handicapped’ because she feels that can summarize many people under one word. The ailments that they are trying to conquer are completely different. Americans who are not disabled understand what it is like to have an ailment, and can imagine what their life consists of. Mairs has incorporated thoughtful allusions and her insightful feelings to aide the explanation of being crippled to a non-crippled reader in her memoir, “I AM a cripple”.

The encroaching world of today's society has been very extravagant with every new step in its evolution track. With the pace we are continuing at we are developing more and more cool gadgets that help us out in everyday society. But in the novel The Andromeda strain there are incredible machines that seem very out of this world when it comes to uniqueness. The team uses all types of technology to see how the virus is mutating and changing into what it came to be in the very end of the novel.

Shelley’s Romantic novel Frankenstein (1818) compares and reflects values of humanity and the consequences of our Promethean ambition against the futuristic, industrialized world of Blade Runner (1992) by Ridley Scott. The notions of unbridled scientific advancement and technological progress resonate with our desire to elevate humanity’s state of being, mirrored amongst the destructive ambition to overtake and disrupt nature and its processes. The disastrous implications of overreaching the boundary between progressive and destructive power and knowledge are heeded through the ultimate and inevitable loss of self and identity, transforming humanity into a form of monstrosity.

Throughout this semester our literary material dealt with themes of technology, modernization, the imponderable bloom, human nature, and truth to name a few of the most overarching. Each text has woven an impression of the possible near future for humanity if the patterns we are creating continue at an exponential rate. Patterns such as consumerism, neglecting unpleasurable emotions, using drugs, and controlling the environment for our short term benefits will write an unsavory and inevitable future. Science Fiction often reflects on society by exaggerating their negative characteristics and advancements to seem far-out, but often it is ironic how close many aspects of the fiction are a direct reflection of the present condition. Even now, the possibilities of utopias and dystopias forming are not so out of reach. The ability of our culture to control an entire population with a self-satisfied culture of vices outfitted with technology is less and less science fiction as the years pass.

A Year after the Mutation lab explosion the dust settled on the destruction of the city and the human race was again affected by another tragedy. The radiation from the blast caused some humans DNA to changed and mutate into these unknown of Alien race’s. Some unable to accept the change committed suicide with government aid called the “suicidium” project, while others tried to accept the change and was forced to be experimented on by the District's Tele-surgeons.

In a genre whose name ostensibly welcomes innovation—science fiction—resistance towards technology may initially seem counterintuitive. This, however, is where it is essential to delve into the annals of history. Writers, after all, write what they know. In an 1948 essay, George Orwell wrote, “When you are on a sinking ship, your thoughts will be about sinking

Crake’s lack of emotions makes him vulnerable to the moral neutrality of scientific knowledge, as he cannot understand the nuances of human nature. When Jimmy and Crake

Ben Goldacre, the author of Bad Science, begins dismantling scientific claims with the notion of detox. Goldacre argues that the idea of a “detox” does not exist, specifically not in a medical textbook (Goldacre, 11). It is rather a whole new physiological process that is created by marketers, lifestyle gurus, and alternative therapists. The concept of detox is rather a marketing invention, and due to its lack of scientific meaning, it can be described more as a cultural product (Goldacre, 12). How much we buy into detoxing our systems depends on how much we value ritual in our lives as individuals (Goldacre, 12). Every religion and culture has some form of purification or abstinence tradition or ritual; In Islam, there is Ramadan, in Judaism, there is Yom Kippur, and so forth (Goldacre, 13). Due to the recurring themes of purification and rituals in our lives, the idea of detoxing makes sense to us, as we believe that there are quick fixes to our negative and unhealthy habits (Goldacre, 12). We often seek redemption in our western lifestyles; whether it’s unhealthy food, drinking, drugs, or other indulgences. Therefore, the concept of cleansing our bodies from material indulgences appeals to us as we crave recovery and protection from the consequences of our harmful habits (Goldacre, 14).

Michael Specter in his essay “The Gene Hackers” and Atul Gawande in his essay “Slow Ideas” both delve into scientific topics. Although each essay style is different, both authors maintain readability for their audience of The New Yorker and educate them while also making them question the future of science. Each essay is different but the both approach science, journalism and public policy.