The novel “The Andromeda Strain” revolves around a bio-weapon that makes its way to Earth via a crashed military satellite. In the book, a satellite originally intended to gather upper-atmosphere microorganisms for exploitation as a bio-weapon comes crashing down near the town of Piedmont, Arizona, killing all but 2 inhabitants of Piedmont almost instantaneously. The United States Military authorizes protocol Wildfire, which is intended to investigate biological threats with an extraterrestrial origin. They take the 2 survivors of Piedmont (Peter Jackson, a man in his 60’s and Jamie Ridder, an infant), along with the crashed satellite, to a Wildfire laboratory for further examination, where they conclude that the disease arrived on the satellite …show more content…
Because of the breach, the facility arms its nuclear device to prevent a spread of the virus. However, the scientists realize that Andromeda would be able benefit from the explosion by absorbing the released energy, and have to work to halt the detonation. Eventually, Dr. Mark Hall barely disarms the nuclear device to prevent the detonation, and towards the end of the book, a hypothesis is given that Andromeda mutated into a non threatening form and moved to the upper regions of the atmosphere where the conditions for growth are more favorable for its growth. The Andromeda Strain pertains to science in several notable ways, but the most significant of these is the nature of the Andromeda virus itself, and the characteristics that separate it from other microorganisms. First off, Andromeda contains elements considered necessary for life and appears to have a crystal-like structure, but does not have several key attributes of terrestrial life, such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and amino acids, but it has the capability to convert matter to energy and vice