The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton is a vivid novel of fiction based on real scientific knowledge and procedure. It tells of five scientists searching to identify and classify an alien life form that was brought from the upper atmosphere, near the beginnings of space, down to Earth by a satellite. The government was conducting a top secret mission of collecting dust and other samples form the upper atmosphere and bringing them back down to Earth in an attempt to discover new living organisms or life forms. Their main reasoning behind this research was to develop new biochemical weapons to be used in warfare with other countries. These five scientists were basically on a standby position and did not know about the mission until something went terribly wrong. Jeremy Stone, the founder of this group, recognized the need for a system to deal with organisms that may come...