   the andromeda strain (1969), by michael crichton, is a techno-thriller novel documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in arizona that rapidly and fatally clots the blood in most humans, while inducing insanity in a small handful of others. the andromeda strain appeared in the new york times best seller list, establishing michael crichton as a genre writer. == plot summary == when a military satellite returns to earth, a recovery team is dispatched to retrieve it; during a live radio communication with their base, the team members suddenly die. aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in piedmont, arizona, the town closest to where the satellite landed, is apparently dead. the base commander suspects the satellite returned with an extraterrestrial organism and recommends activating wildfire, a protocol for a government-sponsored team that counters extraterrestrial biological infestation. the scientists believe the satellite, which was intentionally designed to capture upper-atmosphere microorganisms for bio-weapon exploitation, returned with a deadly microorganism that kills by nearly instantaneous disseminated intravascular coagulation (lethal blood clotting). upon investigating the town, the wildfire team discovers that the residents either died in mid-stride or went "quietly nuts" and committed bizarre suicides. two piedmont inhabitants, the sick, sterno-addicted, geriatric peter jackson; and the constantly bawling infant, jamie ritter, are biologic opposites who somehow survived the organism. the man, infant, and satellite are taken to the secret underground wildfire laboratory, a secure facility equipped with every known capacity for protection against a biological element escaping into the atmosphere, including a nuclear weapon to incinerate the facility if necessary. wildfire is hidden in a remote area near the fictional town of flatrock, nevada, sixty miles from las vegas hiding it by locating it in the sub-basements of a legitimate department of agriculture research station. further investigation determines that the bizarre deaths were caused by a crystal-structu
1969_novels Alfred_A._Knopf_books American_novels_adapted_into_films American_science_fiction_novels Fictional_viruses Novels_by_Michael_Crichton Novels_set_in_Arizona Techno-thriller_novels Viral_outbreaks_in_literature Yavapai_County,_Arizona