title: The Mass-Extinction Debates: How Science Works in a Crisis
author: William Glen
description: The science the protagonist pursue is alive with discovery, and their debates vibrate with conflict, right from the editor's opening chapter on the history of the arguments about competing extinction hypotheses and a host of other conflicts that the debates have spawned.
zlib_text: ML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN  
  (c) 1969 by Michael Crichton  
  FOREWORD  
  This book recounts the five-day history of a major  
  American scientific crisis.  
  As in most crises, the events surrounding the Andromeda  
  Strain were a compound of foresight and foolishness,  
  innocence and ignorance. Nearly everyone involved had moments  
  of great brilliance, and moments of unaccountable stupidity.  
  It is therefore impossible to write about the events without  
  offending some of the participants.  
  However, I think it is important that the story be told.  
  This country supports the largest scientific establishment in  
  the history of mankind. New discoveries are constantly being  
  made, and many of these discoveries have important political  
  or social overtones. In the near future, we can expect more  
  crises on the pattern of Andromeda. Thus I believe it is  
  useful for the public to be made aware of the way in which  
  scientific crises arise, and