Customer Reviews

The Science of Michael Crichton: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind the Fictional Worlds of Michael Crichton (Science of Pop Culture series)

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Not since the writings of H.G. Wells has one writer managed to so much to popularize the real science behind science fiction than Dr. Michael Crichton and for those like me who've either read his works or keep them proudly in their home libraries this book makes a great annotation to all the issues Crichton has raised over his impressive career.

So as not to be too much of a spoiler I'll treat just a few of the entries.

Most notable in Crichton's writing is probably is very famous Jurassic Park, the story of how ancient dinosaur DNA is reconstituted to create modern day dinosaurs on an island theme park of the same name. According to Crichton these miraculous creations are made through a series of easily explainable steps: 1) obtain samples of Jurassic amber...amber being a viscous substance that catches and sometimes preserves ancient mosquitoes so unlikely to be caught there (mosquitoes have existed in one form or another for about three hundred million years), 2) extract blood from the digestive tracts of those selfsame mosquitoes, 3) extract DNA material from that blood (on the assumption that the mosquitoes would've bitten dinosaurs therefore still have their blood), 4) make copies of that DNA, 5) fill any missing gaps in the DNA with frog DNA and finally 5) put the reconstituted DNA into other reptile eggs so they can be born in the normal means.

In my opinion this work is probably the one Crichton work probably best rooted in real science. Interestingly however, the essay on this work shows just how extraordinarily far modern science actually is from accomplishing what this book suggests. Significantly each step of the process has its now seemingly insurmountable difficulties: 1) while the amber may preserve the visible corpus of the mosquitoes it also has its destructive effects in much the same way Egyptian mummification had both its preservative and desctructive qualities, 2) while extraction may yield residual blood there's no way to be certain which creatures were originally bitten or in what combinations 3) while DNA extraction may seem theoretically possible none has been obtained from such old samples, 4) assuming DNA could be obtained copies could easily be made...this is routinely done even in criminal forensic settings...but again the sticking point is getting the usable DNA in the first place and finally 5) even the seemingly mundane task of putting alien dinosaur DNA into other reptile eggs has its difficulties because so far even using merely parts of the DNA chain to direct alien DNA has been barely accomplished.

As can be seen from this first sample, these discussions...building themselves on Crichton's own stories...are inherently fascinating not only for science buffs but even casual readers who merely enjoyed Crichton's work and more interested in the details.

Another exciting example of this is this book's treatment of Crichton's memorable Andromeda Strain. Andromeda Strain...an early work by Crichton...was the story of an attempt by scientists to master an alien virus that found its way to earth. Not surprisingly things were only barely kept in hand yet the story raised interesting questions about the extent to which an alien virus really would be a threat to life on earth.

Ultimately this question involves questions concerning the nature of the genesis of life itself. Today, there are three main theories regarding this important issue: 1) life is extremely common and has occured many times on earth, 2) life is kind of common and started only once on earth and finally 3) life is pretty rare and probably only started once and then spread to other planets. There are varying versions of this last theory that propose anything from merely an earth/mars genesis to something even more broad. The significance of the genesis question finds basis in the idea that presumably only those forms of life sharing a common origin would be able to interact in the type of way necessary to inflict either bacterial or viral damage. While I remain frankly agnostic on these questions owing to our lack of research I nonetheless am fascinated by them as again I think even casual Crichton readers would be.

As a final example, there's a great essay in this book on Crichton's more recent Timeline...the story of a group of researchers who perfect time travel. While admittedly this is one perhaps Crichton has been at his weakest in terms of the supporting science, like the other entries it raises important and thought provoking questions about whether such a device would even be theoretically possible. For those curious, recent works by no less than Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne have both decidedly NOT supported the idea that time travel is possible. For his part, Hawking even went so far as to suggest a chronology protection principle wherein the very physical forces of nature themselves preclude such phenomenon. However, there are still some holdouts such as Ron Mallett of the University of Connecticut who are still pursuing such research.

For my part the question of the possibility of time travel today is probably much like the question of flight by man over a hundred years ago. If there were entities that could do it, I would reason, then probably we could too. Since a hundred years ago we would've known birds could fly I would've therefore predicted that we someday could too...resolving the problems therein to be merely "engineering issues." Significantly today we are aware of many physical phenomenon which do exceed the speed of light and thereby, at least theoretically, make time travel possible: 1) quantum entanglement wherein vastly separated particles evoke instaneous action at a distance (Einstein's so called "spooky action at a distance"), 2) tachyons, so far theoretical faster than light particles, 3) virtual particles, which phase in and out of existence simply by operation of Heisenberg uncertainty in deep space, 4) possibly the very creation of our universe itself according to Dr. Gott (see his wonderful Time Travel in Einstein's Universe), and finally the cosmis expansion itself which far outspaces the speed of light. With so many birds in the sky, I would be amazed if we couldn't someday, somehow join them. (Although I freely concede that dealing with the technical issues in joining them would certainly give "engineering problems" a whole new meaning!)

Regardless of where you stand on these issues, I hope like me you both read this book and join in the discussion of what are perhaps the most fascinating issues in science raised by one of the best science writers ever.

Dr. Crichton's books always feel like real science- get ready for multiple epiphanies about how real it is! Whether you agree or disagree with the essayists, you're sure to enjoy the thought processes. Warning: This book may lead to uber-nerd discussions.

If your into his books then you have to read this. It does get boring at certain sections.

Global Warming (formerly known as Global Cooling, and currently in the process of being transformed yet again into "Climate Change") is the 'god' of the Warmists, who will stop at nothing to force everyone to do their bidding, and will use any excuse they can get suckers to believe in.
Ask yourself if you can ever take seriously the 'science' that comes from someone who says (loudly enough to drown out the debate) "the science is settled, the debate is over".
Look, of course it's entirely possible, perhaps even likely that human activity has had an effect on the climate AND weather. Whether it's serious, or whether it's bad for OUR ENJOYMENT of the planet, neither we nor the Warmists have any idea. They don't even want to know. Making you do what they want is their aim, has nothing to do with "climate".
Remember, these are the SAME people that took the CFCs out of hairspray, air conditioners and the Space Shuttle foam application process at tremendous expense and loss of life (the shuttle fuel tank foam, you know, that stuff that killed all those astronauts? Didn't come off when they used CFC application.) And they did this because... THE EARTH IS COOLING!!! Now they want to rearrange your life, take your money, and make you a pauper because... THE EARTH IS WARMING!!!

Tell 'em to go to hell. They don't even try to know what they're talking about, it's not about "the climate", it's about CONTROL. Even if they were 100% correct about what's happening (verifiably false) you would STILL be an idiot to give them the power to do all this stuff they're proposing.

Oh, Crichton. Haven't read this book, but I've enjoyed most of his novels. State of Fear is the one prior reviewers would like to have you ignore, so be sure to read it.

Unfortunately I wasted too many hours reading this tripe. Fortunately the book was a gift and I didn't expend any of my hard earned cash. "Dr." Grazier's research capabilities are, sadly, as limited as his writing skills. I had hoped to utilize this book to legitimately refute an articulate AGW skeptic acquaintance and found it to be almost utterly useless. The "Dr." sourced only those sources which had an obvious interest in the perpetuation of global warming research. Furthermore, a PhD in planetary physics does not offer adequate credentials for opining on this subject. Please leave the authorship to a climatologist next time - you've done more harm than good.