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At no point do they panic or behave unprofessionally, even though they are exposing themselves to great potential danger, as the crisis involving Burton when a seal breaks shows. They are relentless in their pursuit of knowledge, getting little sleep during the four days the crisis lasts. During the crisis, the scientists go about their tasks with logic and precision. Stone in particular is a visionary because he is one of the few scientists who take seriously Rudolph Karp’s claim to have discovered bacteria in meteorites. In the first place, they show foresight in even envisioning the possibility of an alien bacteria coming to earth in a returning satellite. In his acknowledgements, Crichton describes the story of the Andromeda Strain as a “chronicle of heroism and intelligence.” Although the scientists make many mistakes, they do pursue their task with courage and tenacity.
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This lack of flexibility in their thinking led them to overlook the possibility of mutation.įinally, it is only by chance that the organism mutates into a benign form it presumably might also have mutated into another equally or more deadly form. Everything we did and thought was directed toward finding a solution, a cure to Andromeda” (p. As Stone later explains it, the team made errors because they were “problem-oriented. It doesn’t occur to them this is an effect of mutation had they realized this sooner they might have been alert to the possibility of the disintegration of the gaskets that almost leads to the destruction of the entire facility. Another example is the fact that Stone and Leavitt think the plane crash in Utah is a fluke they don’t see any possible connection between the disintegration of plastic-like material and the Andromeda Strain. He finally does this the following day, and the autopsy yields important information-which they could have had a day earlier. Burton for example fails on the third day of the crisis to conduct an autopsy on the rats that he had given anticoagulation medication. The scientists also make errors in how they go about their task. Not only did it sink, but it was built without sufficient lifeboats to hold all the passengers. In 1912, the Titanic was the most advanced ship of its kind, supposedly unsinkable. It is of course, but such gross errors are not unheard of in the history of technology. As Hall dryly comments after Stone has explained this, “That seems a rather serious error in planning” (p. This leaves the possibility that when the three-minute countdown to destruction begins, Hall might find himself sealed off in a sector without a substation, so he must find a subsection immediately. There were supposed to be eight substations in which the person responsible for aborting the atomic self-destruct process might turn his key. Because of the teleprinter glitch, there is also a delay before the Wildfire team gets to hear about the plane crash in Utah, which is also a vital element in their inquiry.Īnother error shows up in the construction of the Wildfire underground facility.
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The president, acting with little scientific knowledge, somehow made the right decision while the experts were wrong. It later turns out they are wrong dropping the bomb would have provided the organism with an ideal growth environment.
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At the time the scientists strongly believe that dropping the bomb is essential. This means they do not know that the president has postponed dropping an atomic bomb on Piedmont to destroy the bacteria. One of the most ironic is when a sliver of paper gets caught in the mechanism of the teleprinter box at Wildfire, preventing the bell from ringing to inform the project members that a message had been received. Once the crisis is underway, there are more errors and chance events. It is also chance (and human error) that the townspeople take the capsule to the local doctor, who makes the mistake of opening it, thus releasing the organism. It is only by chance that the Scoop satellite is discovered by some of the townspeople in Piedmont, Arizona, rather than the official recovery team. However, although human skill, knowledge, ingenuity and scientific processes play an important role, chance, human error, and technological failure are significant, too. The crisis brought about by the Andromeda Strain brings into play the most advanced scientific technology of its day and a few of the most brilliant scientific minds. Chance, Human Error, and Technological Failure