Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The title of New Yorker contributor Preston's new collection refers to the subject of his bestselling The Hot Zone: a series of rooms in a government biohazard laboratory where scientists work with virulent pathogens like the Ebola viruses that would be devastating in the hands of terrorists. The essays (all from the New Yorker) cover such scientific matters as a profile of controversial über-genome mapper Craig Venter; a gene that leads people to cannibalize themselves; and two Russian-Jewish émigré scientists who built a monster computer in their cramped apartment to puzzle out patterns in the value of pi. Preston's essay on the destruction of large swaths of eastern U.S. forests by insect parasites accidentally brought into the country from abroad is the shortest but most compelling. Preston might have done more to update his pieces; for example, the Marburg virus was found in bats last year, supporting his hypothesis that they are the reservoir for Ebola. But Preston's fans will enjoy his showing how few degrees of separation there are between far-flung areas of scientific endeavors. Illus. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—Preston gets to the heart of these nonfiction essays by placing himself in the center of the story. The "panic" of the book's title refers to his own when his biohazard suit was breached and he feared he may have been exposed to one of the deadliest known viruses. Two of the pieces involve the brothers Chudnovsky, mathematicians so closely dependent on one another that they refer to themselves as The Mathematician. The author was able to disappear as an interviewer to the extent that he became part of the brothers' portrait. At one point, one Chudnovsky says to the other: "The interviewer answers our questions…. The interviewer becomes a person in the story." Preston used this skill of blending into his accounts to his advantage. Whether he was strapping on gear to climb mammoth hemlocks with arborists trying to understand the diseases killing the great trees of the world or acting as an off-road driver for a couple of men with the disease of self-cannibalization, Preston fit in like a good supporting actor who also happened to be the cameraman, writer, and director. Teens will find these stories compelling. The author has the eyes and language of a fine novelist, but he has the mind of a scientist who is trying to understand some of the most fascinating mysteries of our age.—Will Marston, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (May 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400064902
• ISBN-13: 978-1400064908
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #306,278 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "THEY HAD SURVEYED "PI" TO 2,260,321,336 DECIMALS", June 17, 2008

By	Rick Shaq Goldstein "Rick Shaq Goldstein" (Danville, Ca, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

The potential reader should be warned that despite the title of the book being "PANIC IN LEVEL 4", only the introduction portion of the book takes place at the Army's Level 4 virus laboratories at Fort Detrick, an Army base in the eastern flank of the Appalachian Mountains in Maryland. This is the headquarters of the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. (USAMRIID) "Biosafety Level 4, is the highest and tightest level of biosecurity in a laboratory. Laboratories rated at Biosafety Level 4 are repositories of viruses called hot agents-lethal viruses for which there is no vaccine or effective cure. Level 4 labs are sealed off from the outside world." The author does a tremendous job in this area, as his narration makes you feel as if you're inside a pressurized whole-body-biohazard-suit along with him. You'll feel sweat dripping down every orifice of your body as untreatable "live" vials of Ebola and other deadly diseases are in your presence, and all of a sudden the zipper on your suit opens, or you find a hole in your sleeve or pants. Unfortunately this section ends too quickly and then we are in New York visiting with brothers Gregory and David Chudnovsky, two mathematics geniuses, that have built a supercomputer utilizing mail order parts in their rundown apartment. All in their quest to find hidden order in the number "PI". (The division of the circle's diameter into its circumference.) These brothers have built the equivalent of a Cray Y-MP Supercomputer (At the time, one of, if not "THE" fastest computer in the world.) which cost more than THIRTY-MILLION-DOLLARS... while their home-built computer cost them about SEVENTY-THOUSAND-DOLLARS. When the author is first greeted at their apartment door by David, as he slowly opened the door he said: "Don't worry, nothing unpleasant will happen to you here. We will not turn you into digits." The temperature in the apartment is unbearable due to the heat this massive computer puts out, and the landlord doesn't know they've created a supercomputer in their apartment. Eventually they break the world record by calculating "PI" to the 2,260,321,336, decimal, which though impressive still doesn't solve the problem. Note: The author calculated and had verified by a "New Yorker Magazine" fact checker, that there was at least ONE-TON-OF-PAPER in Gregory's bedroom.

From there we go to a story about the death of trees in the forest. I believe all six chapters are from prior New Yorker articles. Because of this, some chapters overlap as far as having the same characters or DNA research subjects, so the reader is stuck hearing the exact same information about certain people and subjects. The minute miniscule discussions regarding DNA, genome, bacteria, sequencing equipment, etc. over and over and over... I must admit it was over the head of a layman like me. And it wasn't the type of book I thought I was getting.

There is a really interesting and harrowing chapter on the Ebola virus that educates the reader that there is not only no cure, but it has been almost impossible to find out where and what it comes from. The author points out that just in the canopies of the forests there are a million living entities that haven't even been discovered by modern man. There's a chapter on a unicorn tapestry made in 1500 and as I mentioned earlier in discussing overlapping characters... the "math-brothers" are out of their apartment and reintroduced to the reader as if we've never heard of them before.

The last chapter is entitled "THE SELF-CANNIBALS" which is about Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. I had never heard of it before, and it is a sad, sad, gut-wrenching illness. It will be hard for any human being with even the smallest amount of empathy to not be distressed reading this. One of the tamer passages is: "Over time, his fingers had gotten into his mouth and nose, and had broken out and removed the bones of his upper palate and parts of his sinuses, leaving a cavern in his face. He had also bitten off several fingers. J.J. seemed happy most of the time, except when he was injuring himself." After getting to know the disease and the affect on the poor human beings and their families that are stricken with it, I wish the author would have used a different title for this chapter. One of the phrases used in this chapter was "self-mutilation", which is still awful but I feel it would show a little more dignity.

This book obviously is written with a very high intellect level, but it is not for everyone, and I hope my review will help people to buy and not to buy as the individual case may be. I wish I could have read a review like this before I decided. I wasn't prepared for what I read.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Felt like bait-and-switch given the title of the book..., June 21, 2008

By	Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This sounded like a great idea when I found it on the shelf at the library... Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science by Richard Preston. I opened the book, expecting to have around 200 pages of talk about killer viruses and the war against them. Instead, I got a seemly random assortment of stories that mostly bore little resemblance to the "Panic in Level 4" title. I almost felt like a victim of bait-and-switch.

Contents:
Introduction - Adventures in Nonfiction Writing; The Mountains of Pi; A Death in the Forest; The Search for Ebola; The Human Kabbalah; The Lost Unicorn; The Self-Cannibals; Glossary; Acknowledgments

The title actually comes from the Introduction chapter. It's there that the author relates his story of being allowed to enter a level 4 biohazard room as part of his background research as a writer. This is something that normally is never allowed, but a few rules were bent and he learned what it's like to be working with viruses that can kill you 100% of the time. Had the whole book stayed in that vein, it would have been great. But then Preston launched into an assortment of stories that, in my opinion, failed to deliver on the promise of the intro and title.

The Mountains of Pi examines two mathematicians who built their own supercomputer and dig deeply into the calculations of the value of Pi. Not a bad story in itself, but not exactly "panic" and "level 4" excitement. A Death in the Forest gets into how an insect infestation kills off eastern hemlock trees, and follows the people who try to prevent the deaths. Far from riveting... The Search for Ebola gets back to the title premise a bit, and shows how difficult it is to trace down the source of a disease that has no cure. The Human Kabbalah then reverts back to the "switch" category by following the story of the mapping of the human genome. An inordinate amount of time is spent looking at the personalities involved between the two groups trying to complete the mapping, as well as the motivation and lifestyle of each. Again, perhaps not a bad story in itself, but off the path of expectations. The Lost Unicorn goes into the efforts to restore the Unicorn Tapestries and the computing power needed to blend together digital images of the tapestries so that a digital record of the work is maintained. We're not only "off the path" now, but I'm not sure there was ever a path to begin with! The Self-Cannibals veers back towards the title, covering a syndrome known as Lesch-Nyhan where people are compelled to mutilate themselves in strange and painful ways. It could be a book by itself, but unfortunately it's a small chapter that only helps to counterbalance the other chapters that were out in left field.

I really enjoyed Preston's other works, which capture the danger and intensity of working with killer illnesses that approach a 100% level of mortality. Panic lacked a cohesive thread based on the title, and I was really disappointed that so many of the chapters failed to deliver on expectations. If you come into the book knowing that it's not all about microbes and germs, you may be more forgiving on the choice of chapter subjects. Unfortunately, I didn't, and I wasn't...

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If you read the essays in a magazine, skip this book, June 21, 2008

By	Diane Bernard "I live to read!" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This is a collection of essays, of varying caliber. There isn't much to tie them together: one is about trees being destroyed by an Asian beetle, one is about a hideous genetic disease, another is about medieval tapestries. Any one of the essays could probably have been turned into an interesting book, but, somehow, this motley collection is more distracting than riveting.

Preston's writing can be a bit stilted, but when the subject matter is good enough, I don't mind reading on.

My biggest problem with this book is the length vs the price. At 188 pages, it is barely as long as a series romance, yet you need to shell out $26 for it. Since the original essays were all available in periodicals like "The New Yorker", which you can get at the library, this really seems like an insult to the reader's wallet.

If you haven't already read his essays, and want to browse through these, I'd definitely recommend the library. This book is not a keeper, and not worth the cover price.