Amazon.com Review
In
The X-Files episode "The Erlenmeyer Flask," FBI agent Dana Scully shows some bacteria to microbiologist Anne Carpenter, who pronounces them extraterrestrial: containing different DNA nucleotides than those found in Earthly organisms. But like the hapless redshirts of
Star Trek, scientists who uncover extraterrestrial evidence have shortened life expectancies. Indeed, Carpenter is soon snuffed out in a highly suspicious car crash. But the real scientist on whom she was based, University of Massachusetts virologist Anne Simon, remained as scientific advisor to the popular program: she is the "X-Pert."
In her book, Simon describes the scientific basis of various X-Files episodes, and writes about some of her behind-the-scenes work putting the Scully into Scully. Sometimes it gets a little difficult to keep track of when Simon is describing an episode and when she's talking about cutting-edge science, but that's part of her point: "The life of a research scientist is filled with mysteries as complex as any that appear on The X-Files. We are Scullys." Simon knows that this show, for all its paranormal apparatus, gives a taste of the thrill of real science, enough to be inspiring a new generation to follow in Scully's footsteps. --Mary Ellen Curtin
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Virologist Simon doubles as the science adviser for television's The X-Files, helping agents Scully and Mulder's adventures fit, or at least approach, plausibility. Her informative book cuts back and forth between X-Files script excerpts, behind-the-scenes anecdotes of her work on the series and accounts of the real-life counterparts and inspirations for the show's many biological plot devices. Where, for instance, Scully and Mulder find a town whose citizens stay young through cannibalism, Simon explains the real consequences when people eat people: a rare brain ailment caused by rogue proteins called prions. Simon (who teaches at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst) likes to remind readers that professional scientists watch The X-Files and look for mistakes. For one episode, Simon insisted that the correct DNA code for a certain virus, rather than just random letters, appear on a geneticist's computer. A visiting professor at her university used the episode in a lecture: he expected to mock the show, and was stunned when a database search showed that The X-Files got it right. When Scully developed cancer, the tests she underwent were real, but their results arrived unrealistically fast: as a result, Simon says, some biochemists tell their colleagues to "call Scully" when an experiment goes slowly. "X-philes" who enjoy these and similar stories will learn plenty of biology in the bargain; among the other hot fields and ideas Simon explains are extraterrestrial bacteria, cloning, genetic mutations, biological warfare, the ominous decline in the world's population of frogs and the likelihood of extending the human life span. Agent, Esmond Harmsworth at Zachary Shuster. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
