| THE SCIENCE OF MICHAEL CRICHTON An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind the Fictional Worlds of Michael Crichton Kevin R. Grazier, Ph.D. (Editor) Dallas: Benbella Books, March 2008 |
Rating: 4.5 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-1-933771-36-6 | ||||
| ISBN-10 1-933771-32-1 | 173p. | SC | $17.95 | |
| Page 2: | "...apart from the inevitable science-fiction touch, much of the equipment and methods described in the book reflects the best technology available during the 1960s." |
| Number: S/B "reflect". |
| Page 2: | "Consistently with its extraterrestrial nature, Andromeda is astonishingly different from any known form of life..." |
| Part of speech: S/B "Consistent". |
| Page 4: | "...while thousands of other elements, including calcium, phosphor, and sulfur, account for the remaining 1 percent." |
| Spelling: S/B "phosphorus". |
| Page 5: | "A crystal is almost the nemesis of our form of life: a fixed, dry structure with few or no possibilities of dynamic changes." |
| Word choice: S/B "antithesis". |
| Page 6: | "...imagine for a moment that crystalline life did not extinguish, but instead, in a remote and inaccessible part of the world, evolution continued..." |
| Grammar: S/B "was not extinguished". |
| Page 12: | "Crichton was clearly inspired by the NASA's Lunar Receiving Laboratory..." |
| Extra word: S/B "NASA's". |
| Page 14: | "Moreover, the air is filtrated and kept under a lower pressure than outside..." |
| Grammar: S/B "filtered". |
| Page 24: | "We're making things smaller at a rate of 5.6 per linear dimension per decade." |
| Missing units: 5.6 of what is being made smaller? |
| Page 29: | "If you want to be in virtual reality, they suppress the signals coming from our r4eal senses and replace them with the signals that you would have been receiving if you were in the virtual environment." |
| Poorly phrased: S/B "if you were in the actual environment the virtual reality represents". |
| Page 31: | "Our biological thinking is flat; the human race has an estimated 10^26 calculations per second, and that biologically determined figure is not going to grow." |
| Says who? |
| Page 43: | "Finally, the anesthesiologist cranks up the gas, and I'm off to never-never land while the surgeons runs the wires under my scalp, places the pacemaker under my collarbone, and closes me up." |
| Number: S/B "the surgeon". |
| Page 50: | "These latter features recalled to many the brow ridges of apes, as in a very approximate way they do." |
| Clumsy phrasing: S/B "which they do resemble in a very approximate way." |
| Page 65: | "Chimpanzees in cages like to throw their feces at people, whereas gorillas like to eat them." |
| Their feces, or the people? |
| Pages 66-7: | "So far so good: every animal on the planet with a brain larger than a single neuron can do that." |
| Every animal? |
| Page 69: | "...which prompted the lamb's creators to name her after the country western singer with the hitherto most famous mammary glands." |
| I suppose this is arguably true. Then again, the sheep might have been named "Doda." |
| Page 75: | "Invented by Kary Mullis and a team at Cetus Corporation in the early 1980s, we can now use it to generate lots of DNA from even one snippet." |
| Dangling participle: S/B "it can now be used". |
| Page 87: | The author questions the authenticity of Crichton's archaic dialog: "Did they really talk that way?" |
| Aye, marry, they did indeed. |
| Page 89: | "...his characters in Timeline gets revenge against Doniger..." |
| Number error. Having seen the movie version, I'd say "characters," plural, is correct. Thus, it S/B "get revenge". |
| Pages 90-104: | There are vague or clumsily written passages all through these pages. This essay needs (or needed) the most work. |
| Says who? |
| Page 94: | "This would be a good time to bring up Schödinger's Cat." |
| Spelling: S/B "Schrödinger's Cat". (Two lines down, it's correct.) |
| Page 94: | "He digs into his wormhole." |
| Phrasing: S/B "digs his own", since the digger is an apple worm. |
| Page 95: | The top paragraph discusses wormholes in various novels and TV shows without making it clear that they differ greatly. In particular, the wormholes in Stargate: SG1 are manufactured; the others occur naturally. |
| Spelling: S/B "Schrödinger's Cat". (Two lines down, it's correct.) |
| Page 137: | "The growth or decline of glaciers derives from a complex balance of temperature and moisture ability." |
| Word choice: S/B "availability". |
| Page 168: | "After overcoming these hurdles, the patent office grants a patent." |
| Dangling participle: S/B "After these hurdles are overcome". |
| Page 170: | "From a legal standpoint, the scheme is ludicrous. No sane interpretation of law would back the actions of these jokers. They'd get cells, alright—either padded or with iron bars." |
| Spelling: S/B "all right". (The joke is all right; the spelling is not "alright".) |
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