Richard Preston - Panic in Level 4

“Fine,” Murphy answered in a slushy voice.

Robert said to me quietly, “What’s with them?”

“It would take a while to explain,” I said.

“We’ll need to dig,” Robert added.

All of us (except Elrod and Murphy) got down on our knees and began scooping sand from under the vehicle with our hands, Robert working along with us. Ten minutes later, we’d dug a tunnel under the vehicle. Robert crawled into it and got the chain hooked into the chassis. He crawled out. “Start your vehicle,” he said to me. “Give it gas when the chain goes tight. If the chain breaks, watch out. It could come back through the windshield and cut your head off.”

He started his truck, gunned the engine. The truck shot forward in a running start, and chain snapped tight.

There was a sound like a gunshot; the chain had broken. It whiplashed back and hit the Speed of Light truck with a booming sound that echoed over the lake, leaving a dent in the tailgate.

Robert got out and studied the damage to his truck. He seemed philosophical about it. “I should’ve used the big one.” Then he reached into the bed of his truck and unfurled a massive chain—the big one. He dragged it slowly over to us, and got it attached. “This’ll definitely pull something out of here. I just hope it’s not your axle.” He floored his truck, the chain went tight, and the Expedition was yanked out, bouncing and fishtailing over the lake bed. Perhaps having Lesch-Nyhan syndrome is like being stuck in mud all your life while waiting for help that never arrives.

A COUPLE OF YEARS LATER, Jim Murphy came down with pneumonia, and he went downhill fast. When it was clear that he was dying, I called him to say good-bye. As he got on the line, I could hear a hubbub of voices in the background. A lot of people had come to see him, and they were milling around in his hospital room and in the hallway. He seemed to be handling his situation calmly. “I’ll be all right,” he said to me, and added, “Take care with your driving.”

Another day, before Jim Murphy died, I visited James Elrod. Tracye Overby, who was working as Elrod’s assistant that day, needed to change the silk liners he wore inside his motorcycle gloves.

Elrod did not like to see his bare hands. He asked me to hold his wrists while Overby removed his gloves. It occurred to me that I had never seen his hands. The hands that emerged were pale, with spindly fingers that had been gnawed close to the bone in places, and a finger was missing. “Danger,” he said. His eyes took on a strange, bright, blank look. He was staring at the right hand. His arm was tense and trembling. As if a magnet were pulling it, the hand moved toward his mouth. His mouth opened, wider and wider, baring his teeth…. “Help!” he called in a muffled voice.

We threw ourselves on Elrod. It took all our strength to restrain his hand. As soon as we got control of it, he relaxed. Overby got the gloves back on him.

“Nobody knows about this disease. Every day I’m hoping for a cure,” Elrod said. “I wanted you to see that.”

arthropodA segmented invertebrate with a hard exoskeleton made of chitin. Examples: spiders, mites, insects, crustaceans.

basal gangliaAn area in the lower part of the brain, the size of a lemon, that influences many aspects of behavior.

behavioral phenotypeA pattern of actions and behavior traceable to the influence of a geneor genes in the DNA.

biohazard space suitA pressurized whole-body protective suit made of soft, flexible plastic, with a soft helmet, worn by researchers working in Biosafety Level 4 (BL-4)laboratories.

Biosafety Level 4 (BL-4)The highest level of biocontainment security.

Celera GenomicsA division of the Applera Corporation devoted to genomic and proteomic discovery to advance the practice of medicine.

CDCCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal organization, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, responsible for the detection and prevention of human disease, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

chromosomeA small elongated body in the nucleus of a cell in which a portion of the organism’s DNA is tightly coiled, for storage. Human cells have two sets of twenty-three chromosomes (for a total of forty-six chromosomes).

Chudnovsky Mathematician, theThe brothers David and Gregory Chudnovsky assert that functionally they are a single mathematician who happens to occupy two human bodies.

decon showerA chemical decontamination shower used in the air lock entry/exit module of a Biosafety Level 4 lab.

DNA sequencingDetermination of the sequence of nucleotides,or letters, in a strand of DNA.

ecotoneA boundary-like habitat in nature where different kinds of ecosystems come into contact and mix.

Eddington number, theThe number of protons and electrons in the observable universe. The Eddington number is roughtly 10 79, or a 1 followed by seventy-nine zeros; it was first proposed by the British physicist Sir Arthur Eddington in 1938.

epistaxisNosebleed.

ESTExpressed sequence tag. An easily identifiable sequence of letters in DNA, typically located near the end of a gene.

geneA stretch of the DNA, typically a thousand to fifteen hundred letters long, that holds the recipe for making a protein or a group of proteins in an organism.

genetic diseaseAn inherited illness or impairment that is passed from parents to their offspring in a gene or genes in the DNA. A genetic disease is not contagious.

genome, humanThe total amount of DNA that is spooled into a set of chromosomes in the nucleus of every typical human cell.

genomicsThe sequencing and study of genes in DNA.

goutA disease, first identified by doctors at the time of Hippocrates, in which crystals of uric acid build up in the extremities, especially the big toe, causing severe pain.

Home Depot thing, the(or It) A powerful computer built by mathematicians David and Gregory Chudnovsky.

hostAn organism in or on which a parasitelives.

hot zone, hot suiteA Biosafety Level 4 biocontainment laboratory.

HPRT proteinA protein produced by all cells in the human body, used for recycling purines (by-products of the processing of DNA). When HPRT is absent from cells, due to a defect in a gene, the result in humans is Lesch-Nyhan syndrome.The full name of this protein is hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase.

Human Genome Project, theA nonprofit international research consortium that deciphered the complete sequence of nucleotides, or letters, in the human DNA.

IMASInstitute for Mathematics and Advanced Supercomputing, at Polytechnic University, Brooklyn. Principally occupied by David and Gregory Chudnovsky ( the Chudnovsky Mathematician).

Institute, theNickname for the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), at Fort Detrick, Maryland.