And he was setting us up for what comes later when they finally analyze the Andromeda Strain and the data comes out of the mass spectrometer, and you're the scientist. HEIST: I liked that part of the book too. HEIST: And that all life forms that we're familiar with have amino acids. He taught simple every-day facts that, you know, in a matter of sentences, you learned about proteins, how proteins folded and enzymes. I really liked the stuff, the way he taught science. If you've read Michael Crichton's book, 'The Andromeda Strain,' you want to talk about it, it's our Book Club pick this week. I might have to go through.įLATOW: 1-80 is our number. They - they're - they - the format is exactly right, but the papers aren't real, at least not the ones that I checked. HEIST: And he has a references section in the back that looked like real scientific papers. You thought he was starting right from the. The preface was right into the book, and you thought.įLATOW. That was the.įLATOW: He didn't say - you know, start off with the preface or whatever. I was turning pages quickly.įLATOW: Yeah. HEIST: And while it is fiction, there's a lot of fact in here, and I liked that part of it. You know, we had the labs that I heard about in my daily life and the topics that we cover, but applied to this sort of fantastical world, which I enjoyed it. LICHTMAN: It was like - I love fiction, and it was fiction, but with all my favorite characters. I mean.įLATOW: You don't have to worry about the accuracy. I think I was either being snooty or because we cover the nonfiction, and so I'm thinking like, oh, you know, what does sci-fi, you know, bring to the table for me since I get to hear about science all the time on our wonderful program? And what I learned was that it's so much more exciting when you fictionalize it.

LICHTMAN: I am a sci-fi convert after the book.įLATOW: Oh, so you don't usually read sci-fi. Let's go - let's get right to the meat of it. I didn't know that about - I learned that via Wikipedia this morning.įLATOW: Well, OK. I couldn't put it down.ĪNNETTE HEIST, BYLINE: It was hard to put down, and it's by Michael Crichton, we should say, also known for 'Jurassic Park' and for you younger-ish folks, 'ER.' I was thinking of 300 and something-odd pages, but I, you know, in one sitting, was halfway through. And this month, we had a page-turner, 'The Andromeda Strain.'įLATOW: It goes very quickly, that book, doesn't it? Poof. With me are Flora Lichtman, correspondent and managing editor of video for SCIENCE FRIDAY, Annette Heist, our senior producer. It's that time again, the SCIENCE FRIDAY Book Club.

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