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The Andromeda Strain
1971 · Film · 131 min
Directed by Robert Wise
When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone scrambles to a secure laboratory and tries first to isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont - an old alcoholic and a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form, unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device designed to prevent the escape of dangerous biological agents.
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or The Andromeda Strain. I was on the edge of my seat for the last half of the movie as a 10 year old when it came out. The book still holds up as a medical mystery - thriller and warning of unintended consequences.
Yeah, Star Wars more or less killed sci-fi as we had known it. I liked the weird Logan's Run, the depiction of class stratification in "Soylent Green", the banality of corporate control of "Rollerball".
The idea of a computer virus in the film "Westworld" was, to me at the time, something out of left field. (And speaking of Michael Crichton, "The Andromeda Strain" was "intelligent" sci-fi and we enjoyed it.)
"Mad Max", though it came after "Star Wars", drew inspiration from "A Boy and His Dog", "Deathrace 2000"…
A Golden Age for sure.
Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton's first big success.
Great movie, but even better book.
Do you mean the Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton [1] (also a movie) and I seem to remember it being a good watch when I last watched though that might be a good 15 years ago. The idea was novel enough it's stuck with me since and I do often joke with people about it, especially given from what I gather that certain types of funghi can now digest certain types of plastic [2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain
[2] https://www.shroomer.com/mycoremediation-plastic-eating-mushrooms/
There have been several bacteria-eats-stuff novels. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/260552/novel-that-imagines-a-dystopia-created-by-the-disappearance-of-plastic
This was the basis for Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters (1971 novel), which was adapted from an episode of Doomwatch (1970 UK TV), which was inspired by the fighter jet crash scene in The Andromeda Strain (1969 novel), where the organism ate through a plastic hose. There was another UK show where a fungus destroyed all the paper.
In the present article, the problem is that dissolvable sutures are made out of biodegradable polycaprolactone, and there's a Pseudomonas biofilm that can grow on polycaprolactone, so it's an infection problem.
Reminds me of the old movie Andromeda Strain.
The Andromeda Strain from 1971 is rated G and features a naked woman in a bathtub early in the movie.
It's not something I'd really noticed before I had a similar conversation with someone regarding how movie ratings have changed over time vis a vis nudity.
That aside, it's a brilliant sci fi movie, and I'd recommend it to everyone here :)
The Andromeda Strain is the most underrated of Chrichton's books, to my mind. The movie adaptation is very good, too.
Drill, by all means! What could possibly go wrong?
I mean, the origin of several dangerous viruses has sometimes been attributed to the exploration of caves, etc. How is this different!8-))
https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/10/the_incredible_cave_where_marburg_may_dwell.html#!
https://www.science.org/content/article/close-cousins-sars-cov-2-found-cave-laos-yield-new-clues-about-pandemic-s-origins
Shades of The Andromeda Strain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain
It made an exciting movie (although the ending is somewhat inexplicable): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066769/
Edit: Movies, unsorted, from the top of my mind:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_of_Control https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Origins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_East_(2013_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter%27s_Bone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(2011_film) , seen before Covid, deemed to be realistic, and therefore better than stuff like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warning_Sign_(film) somewhere in between. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_IV_(1974_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_(film) The remakes of the Planet of the Apes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Weeks_Later a little less so, though it had some great scenes of flying into London City Airport and the modern parts around that. Bladerunner in the original versions, the remake not so much. 2001: A Space Odyssey, the intro and first parts, spaceflight to the moon and such, the rest not. Too boring. I liked the sequel 2010: Odyssey Two better, actually. Avatar. Part one only. All of this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(franchise) with the exception of the crossover stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film) for the almost cyberpunkish fuckedupness of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_Untold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_(2005_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropia_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollerball_(1975_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_Dealer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southland_Tales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence_(2014_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puppet_Masters_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Survivalist_(2015_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_(2000_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(2007_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hidden_(1987_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Zero_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capricorn_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangar_18_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_(2001_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timecop Ron Silverman Badass! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(2014_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Blonde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_Night_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombiana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowing_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Zone_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_(1998_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adjustment_Bureau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeforce_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fourth_Protocol_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_(2013_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_(2009_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Countdown_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypher_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_Point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_Conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anderson_Tapes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parallax_View https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Seduction
TV-Series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(1975_TV_series) and the remake linked from there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Train_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho_(2006_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strain_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayward_Pines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_(American_TV_series) and its prequel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_(TV_series)
WESTWORLD!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_(TV_series) Praimfaya! Yeehaa! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpart_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ark_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series) All of Black Mirror! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Experiments_Lain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelers_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_Skies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devs_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peripheral_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporated_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_by_Wolves_(American_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_the_Loop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschland_83 and sequels. ÄXZÄLLÄNNT! JAWOLLJA! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humans_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Night_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(2019_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gods_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozark_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_(miniseries) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_(American_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvation_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Dome_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_(2009_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caprica
This all began about 2006 with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_(2004_TV_series) after having abstained from possessing a TV, or watching that by other means (with some exceptions for news and documentaries) since 1996, and mostly no cinema either.
That stuff rehooked me in a binge-watching session. Shit happens :-)
Do yoo vanna häff fries wiff thät?
/nerdsnipe off
The 18th place entry (A cryptocrystalline micrometeorite resting on a #80 testing sieve) is like a still from the original Andromeda Strain movie
Why not consider it alive? The same with the fires mentioned in other comments. In The Andromeda Strain (the novel, don't remember if it's in the film as well), there's a scene where the characters are trying to determine a single quality they can look for that signifies life. They come up with energy conversion, and they do consider luminescent watch hands and geologic formations. It's been a long time since I read it, I don't recall them ending with back-patting and "mission accomplished" cheers, but the point of the scene wasn't to make a definite answer for the readers nor the characters - it was that when you're looking for life, perhaps your definition of "life" will need expanded. So why do we need a definition that absolutely includes This, and absolutely excludes That and The Other? What if we settle on a definition and found out it does apply to The Other, why must we change the definition instead of changing how we categorize The Other? Both are adjusting our model to fit new evidence. Why be so determined that Life Must Be Like Us And No Other?
I am a tremendous fan of this film and could never explain the frission I felt when Colossus and Guardian began their mutual acceleration. It's in that short list of cerebral, glacial science fiction of a particular era that somehow never lost your attention, like The Andromeda Strain and such.
Demon Seed is also up there but in a different way.
Alien vs The Andromeda Strain vs Taking of Pelham One Two Three vs The Godfather vs American Graffiti vs Animal House vs Apocalypse Now vs Tora! Tora! Tora!
Honestly I don't see much connecting "70s-ness" thread between these. You can kind of take a guess at the era by the color tones, or for those movies with a contemporary setting, the style of clothing and cars. But otherwise there is huge range in old movies.
I've got this theory that although technology advances and social mores change with different social standards being imposed on art (e.g. Hayes Code), artistic merit is more or less evenly distributed through time. That is to say, old things are about as likely to be meritorious as new things, there's no general trend of newer = better. However the general public realizing this would be bad for business, new productions don't want to compete with the best of old generations, and so there are efforts to persuade people that old content is unwatchable and a waste of time to even consider. People are strongly encouraged to favor new content over old, for instance by having an averse "eww icky" reaction to black and white movies or even technicolor. Technical developments in film stock, SFX, etc are touted as being extremely meritorious and are heavily emphasized in the promotion of new movies because this is the competitive edge for modern productions.
One of the old scifi movies that aged really well.
Others that come to mind:
- The Day the Earth Stood Still
- The Andromeda Strain
For long paced old school sci-fi, The Andromeda Strain (1971) is a much better watch. I wouldn't even call Solaris (1976) a proper sci-fi movie, it's a philosophical drama set in sci-fi space milieu.
There is a movie you may want to watch.
"Andromeda Strain", directed by Robert Wise, 1971.
The sequence where the specialists are "sterilized" before entering the most secure levels of the lab are best.
Robot voice: "Please enter the chamber and be sterilized."
Dr Leavitt (played by Kate Reid): "I'd rather be decontaminated."
I get the sense that you would like some adult themes, but not too slow?
Top of my mind (and in no specific order) would be:
- Dark City
- The Thirteenth Floor
- City of the Lost Children
- Tron (original and maybe new one)
- Interstellar
- Inception
- A Clockwork Orange
- Her (very relevant to our times)
- Dune (2021 version)
- Brazil
- The Martian
- Children of Men
- Edge of Tomorrow (most like Marvelverse on this list but still very good)
- Moon
- Twelve Monkeys
- Upgrade
- The Fifth Element
- Contact
- Okja
- District 9
- Predestination (very relevant to our times)
- Serenity (but might need some prep from the tv show before watching)
- World on a Wire
- The Abyss
- Minority Report (very relevant in our times)
- The Fly
- Videodrome
- Equilibrium
- Strange Days
- The Andromeda Strain (relevant after Covid)
- eXistenZ (trippy but I loved it when it came out and was only around your sons age)
- In Time (interesting class dynamics on display)
- Enemy Mine
- Franklyn (some interesting takes on mental illness)
- The Arrival
Gattaca, Moon, Gravity, Contact, Space Camp, Andromeda Strain, the original Westworld (1973), the first two Star Trek movies. The STTNG TV series, Another Earth (2011, PG-13), The Man from Earth.
It looks like a satellite carried by a balloon.
They should toss a net over the thing to bring it down faster. Or simply shoot holes in the balloon - it will sink as gas escapes. Once it gets down to altitude, use a helicopter to snag the net/balloon and drag it to an open field and let it land. Send in a HAZMAT team (like in the movie "Andromeda Strain").
I recommend dragging it over to some Indiana farmland - nothing there we would need to worry about.
Jurassic Park (and The Andromeda Strain) are probably his two best. That one was made into a good movie and the other one a groundbreaking one probably colors our memories of them too.
Sweet maybe after this we can go ahead and extract DNA from a mosquito in amber and use that to make dinosaurs and open a theme park with them. Sounds like that is the next Chriton movie on the list now that we are checking of "The Andromeda Strain".
Check out The Andromeda Strain (and movie):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain
Anyone who watched the Andromeda Strain movie but didn't read the book (preferably at an impressionable age) really missed out on some awesome sauce.
There was a movie about that. What was it? Oh yes, "The Andromeda Strain".
Michael Crichton would have a better legacy if he had not turned to global climate disruption denialism in his final years.
The problem with microorganisms eating all the waste plastic is that then the carbon in it is no longer sequestered.
The Andromeda Strain. The film and the book are both excellent. It's a sci-fi when all is said and done, but it sticks in the mind, and is a good symbol for/of modern scientific practice.
Yes and:
The Andromeda Strain [1969] predates State of Fear [2004].
Jill Lepore's sympathetic take is the Vietnam War, MKULTRA, and other US Govt scandals broke Crichton.
https://www.thelastarchive.com/season-2/episode-6-it-came-from-outer-space
My opinion of Crichton is much harsher. Probably the nicest thing I could say about him is he made a lot of money sowing fear and mistrust.
I read somewhere that the most likely "alien" visitor is a bacterium, virus, or other organism that rode here on a meteor fragment. That achieves interstellar travel without the need or intelligence or intent. It was also the subject of the terrific movie The Andromeda Strain.
Briefly referenced in The Andromeda Strain (the movie from 1971):
— Hard on the taxpayers, isn’t it, they way we burn up uniforms?
— They’re paper.
— I’d swear it was cloth.
— New process.
Usually mutated forms are less deadly. In the case of Covid-19 we've seen both more and less deadly mutations.
In the book and original movie "Andromeda Strain", the deadly virus mutates to a non-infectious form and the world is miraculously saved, an impossible ending.
The author, Michael Crichton, was not known for writing good endings for most of his novels, despite being incredibly skilled at writing a suspenseful first half.
The author C.S. Forester, in his memoir "Long Before Forty", wrote how different authors often have completely different skills. For example some can conceive story ideas easily but are slow to flesh the story out; others, given a story line, can fill it out easily but are simply unable conceive an original plot. Forrester says almost no author has all the skills to be an excellent writer and so writers often discuss writing amongst themselves and swap ideas in their work.
Crichton was blessed with the skills to both conceive and initiate stories marvelously but IMO he should have handed off the last half of most of his books or possibly co-authored with someone more skilled at endings. We all would have benefited greatly: a poor ending is a true disappointment, all the more after a perfect start.
My (armchair) assumption is that we are still learning.
I'm reminded of the film, "The Andromeda Strain" (1971) — such an intelligent movie. Still feels cogent almost 50 years later.
Maybe, but with all the people stuck at home, it really should be on everyone's Netflix to-watch list. Fantastic movie.
Some other good picks relevant for these times: The Andromeda Strain (1971) Outbreak (1995) Contagion (2011) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and 1978 versions) 28 Days Later (2002)
In the 1971 film The Andromeda Strain, the biological containment lab has these cool suits which have a tunnel you crawl through to get into the suit. The suit never leaves the containment chamber. I keep thinking back to that design, and wondering if that's the future of COVID hospitals. Something like that wouldn't be that hard to mass produce at all.
> things you can binge watch for a month?
this should get you through March :) ...
The Seventh Seal (1957) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/
The Last Man on Earth (1964) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058700/
The Omega Man (1971) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067525/
The Andromeda Strain (1971) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066769/
Dawn of the Dead (1978) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077402/
Outbreak (1995) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114069/
12 Monkeys (1995) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114746/
Cabin Fever (2002) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303816/
Resident Evil (2002) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120804/
28 Days Later (2003) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/
Children of Men (2006) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/
28 Weeks Later (2007) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463854/
I Am Legend (2007) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/
Blindness (2008) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0861689/
Carriers (2009) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0806203/
Daybreakers (2009) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433362/
Black Death (2010) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181791/
Contagion (2011) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2011) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/
World War Z (2013) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/
Maggie (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1881002/
Train to Busan (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5700672/
The Girl With All The Gifts (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547056/
93 Days (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5305246/
Cargo (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3860916/
It Comes At Night (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4695012/
Rabid (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5628902/
The Hot Zone (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4131818/
edit: There is actually a Wikipedia page for the genre (duh!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_viral_outbreaks
I was a huge Crichton fan when younger, and Andromeda Strain and most of his earlier stuff is head and shoulders above later work.
The movie isn't bad either.
I'd definitely skip reading anything newer than Lost World. Like Tom Clancy, at some point (and $) you lose the fire to write.
Ever seen the 70s movie The Andromeda Strain?
I never read the book but the 1971 Andromeda Strain movie is still one of my favorite moves.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066769/
Metropolis. Oh look.. she's c3po
There is a fantastic two second clip of a hollerith card sorter in 'the ipcress file' and 'the billion dollar brain' is a giant scam via a computer. (Both Len deighton spy thrillers)
The Italian job (then original) depends on a pre 1900 BPI tape reel. Another James Bond movie or three has similar tape subthemes (I think Roger Moore uses a Philips audio cassette as a tape in one)
It's a stretch but the taking of Pelham 123?
The andromeda strain (giant computer security system has to be defeated to avoid dying in a locked down biolab)
It's a very smartly written novel that holds up very well. It's also unusually grim for the era.
Steven Soderbergh's Contagion also comes to mind as an example of a realistic, scientifically accurate depiction of an epidemic.
Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, while not being about zombies, is a very science/fact-based exploration of a hypothetical outbreak. A much less scary scenario, though; the pathogen only affects a single, isolated town which is quickly secured, and all of the action occurs in the experimental underground science lab where they study it. The 1971 film is also fantastic, and holds up really well.
Many people can't handle the pacing of older sci-fi movies. I remember watching the Andromeda Strain with my wife when we were teenagers. She said it was the most boring movie she had ever seen.
As a big fan of Jodorowsky (L'Incal is one my favourite graphic novels ever), I think we could also unequivocally say that whatever he had made would not have been very faithful to the book. It's quite possible that Dune fans would have been even less happy with Jodorowsky's film than Lynch's.
We also have to remember that this was before Star Wars and Alien. Most scifi at the time was, with some honourable exceptions (2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running, The Andromeda Strain, Solaris), pretty silly, childish, often campy stuff: The Black Hole, Buck Rogers, Moonraker. Pulp origins aside, Star Wars introduces a level of violence, maturity and realism to the genre that stood out at the time, and closer to that of contemporary adult 1970s productions like Apocalypse Now, Easy Rider and so on.
For all the considerable talent involved in the Dune adaptation, it's quite possible — and this eases the pain over the loss of the project a bit — that it would have been closer in tone to something like Zardoz or Flash Gordon, i.e. a big, colourful, but ultimately also a bit silly extravaganza. Even O'Bannon's Alien script was also pretty pulpy and silly until Ridley Scott, David Giler and Walter Hill hammered it into shape.
Disclosure! Yeah, the one that became the movie with Demi Moore and Michael Douglas. A man is sexually harassed by his female boss.
The book is kind of about that, but also about technology. It was published in 1994 and I would say it was futuristic, if not a bit misguided.
Crichton envisioned a virtual reality tool where -- if you wanted to find a certain file on your computer -- you would run down the halls of a huge virtual library, opening virtual filing cabinets and picking through files by hand. I think this was supposed to make finding your digital files "easier"... but seems hilarious now.
Who knows, maybe some version of that will still come true. It's been a while since I read it, so I might be mis-remembering.
Almost all of his books had some futuristic technology involved, including Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Timeline, etc.
Reading about these tests on monkeys in a biosafety level 4 facility reminds me of The Andromeda Strain. I remember watching the movie for the first time a few years ago and saw how the strain killed a monkey. I was thinking to myself perhaps killing a monkey for a movie was acceptable back in 1971. It turns out they just made it pass out with CO2, under the supervision of the SPCA. It was also one of those strange movies where I could remember the story line but had no visual memory of it, until I remembered I read the book on a commute many years before.
My favourite:
Let the right one in (the original version), beautiful atmospheric movie: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1139797
Other recommendations:
City of God, harsh but realistic: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0317248
Barefoot Gen, shock and awe, made me cry, IMHO better than Grave of the Fireflies: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0085218/
The Chaser, breathtaking thriller: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1190539/
The Andromeda Strain, now this is real SF: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0066769
The Man from Earth, good low budget SF: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0756683
Castaway on the Moon: funny movie about a man that 'bootstraps' his life on a 'stranded island' after a failed suicide attempt: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1499666/
I saw the devil, violent but very good thriller: http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1588170/?ref_=sr_1
> Is oblivious to how many times their cubicle-mate has gone for coffee, the bathroom, or the hospital
> Substantial refactoring on the eve of a deadline
> Fondness for films directed by Stanley Kubrick
> Commits changes to the repository that consist only of comments
> Pauses "The Andromeda Strain" at the part about the sliver of paper getting between the bell and the ringer and grins like a madman
> Has the German versions of "Der Kommissar" and "99 Lufballons" on their iPod (and, er... their native language is English)
> Giggles when someone says the phrase "This is recorded on sticky-tape and rust"
> Willingly throws away weeks or months of work in order to adopt another programmer's superior code
> A cubicle or desk populated with toys that came from ThinkGeek
I hate to be the first comment and be a negative comment but there is _WAY_ too much subjective/whimsy/useless filler in this article. Apply your coding standards and cut this article down to 10% of its original size.
IRB review is a very important part of modern science, and the system is simply not setup to deal with research that hasn't been throughly cleared by a review board. You could consider IRB approval the first step in peer-review: your study is worthwhile and you aren't going to do anything unethical.
IRBs are designed to protect the subjects/patients, the researchers, and the institutions. To skip that step is pretty unusual, and some hoops had to be jumped through in order to deal with it. I think the fact that the 23andMe study was published at all was a big leap, and represents the flexibility inherent in the scientific community.
The response to "new and cool" wasn't "you didn't do it according to protocol". It was: since you didn't do it according to protocol, we need to verify that you did this ethically.
Imagine what would have happened if they used someone's DNA in their study without their knowledge. When you're talking about publishing links between diseases and people's DNA, you better be damn sure you have permission to use their genetic data. That is what IRBs are good for.
In a world where movies constantly are pointing out how scary/evil/unethical scientists can be (Andromeda strain, Splice), these checks are very important, even if it slows things down a little.