Alec Badeau

3/7/08

Biologic Book

Sophomore Biology Honors

The Cobra Event

            I just finished a book called The Cobra Event by Richard Preston. It is about a woman named Alice Austen who works for the C.D.C., the Center for Disease Control. She is asked to investigate and perform a biopsy on a weird case in New York City. The case is a sixteen-year-old girl who died from an unknown thing.

            “Kate opened her mouth and a hoarse croak came out. She was lying on her back now. Her spine began to bend backward. Her body arched into the air. Her stomach lifted up higher and higher. Her teeth clacked together in a spasm. Her spine recurved impossibly far. Lifting off of the floor, her stomach raised up. Her body formed the shape of a C. Her head and heels were supporting her weight.” (Page 9)

            This is only part of the horrible case. It all starts out with a cold and turns into a stomach ache, then after awhile the spasms start and within minutes she starts to eat her self and eventually dies from her brain being turned to mush. This thing destroys the human body in as little as two days.

            Alice Austen is from the moment on discovering everything there is to know about this thing that she calls a virus. Her road has many twists and turns that beckon you to turn the page with caution.

            When Mr. Robins told us that we needed to read a biological book I wasn’t incredibly excited until I thought about The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. I was going to read it but I didn’t want to reread a book. So I asked around for another good book and Jordan told me to read this book by the same exact author. I opened to the first page and didn’t put it down.

            This book is fiction, but it has non-fiction parts in it. This kind of virus has never existed, but it has symptoms that do exist like, the common cold, self-cannibalism, and spasms. The biologists use real equipment like an electron microscope, a regular microscope, test tubes and all the other good stuff. They also employ hot zones and containment levels, which makes it exciting. I almost consider this book historical fiction, everything in it is real, but it hasn’t ever happened.

            I consider this book to only have two main themes; bio-terrorism and always being prepared. Throughout the whole book humankind are at the brink of having a huge number of people killed because of one person. Bio-terrorism does exist and we could all die from a simple spec of dust. The author constantly showed evidence of this throughout the book. One man was sent to cause havoc on the population and he did it with no problem it was almost like he didn’t have morals. Because of Bio-terrorism you always have to be prepared. Throughout the book Alice Austen and many other characters were never quite ready for what they were up against. This is a common theme in our country, we are never quite ready for huge incidents and sometimes don’t recover from them. AIDS was and still is bio-terrorism. Some ruthless person didn’t like the way the world was going and wanted to slow it down. We still have not found failsafe prevention to this virus and we may never.

            This book has changed my view of the world significantly. I started out reading this book thinking it would be a cool little science book, but it made me realize a few things. One is that we humans need to live with other animals, and right now we are not respecting that.

            “Natural thinning events are positive. History shows what I mean, he liked to point in his mind. In the year 1348 or thereabouts, the Black Death, and infective airborne bacterial organism called Yersinia Pestis, whipped out at least a third of the population of Europe. It was a very good thing for Europe. The survivors prospered. They inherited more land and more property. A great economic boom followed the Black Death, and it accumulated in the Renaissance.” (Page 198)

            I understood that this was totally true, who cares if this book is Fiction, and this author is throwing many real human views in here. What I got out of this is that when the human population gets to great then something has to deplete it. A virus is a natural thing and it does its job well. Preston went on to emphasize that a virus never wipes out a total population it just thins it and it is usually needed. This made me think that maybe it is time for another thinning event. Our population is astronomical right now. AIDS was an attempt to thin our population, but it did not do all it could because of modern medicine. I have a feeling that a thinning event could happen; I am not saying it is going to happen. This just opened my eyes to see that things like viruses have their purposes.

            Another thing that changed my view of this world was that people need to do things for the better of other people. The characters in this book put their own lives on the line for other people’s lives. This made me realize that other people come before yourself.

            After reading this book I really want to research more into viruses. I want to research up on stuff like AIDS and others like the Plague. I wanted to study their effects and their biological features. I think it would be a wonderful project. I would also like to research up on the governments views and actions on viruses.

            I would highly recommend this book to anyone. I didn’t think it was going to be that great when I picked it up, but that quickly changed. I don’t reread many books, but I may reread this one because it was such a good book. Richard Preston did an amazing job. I recommend this book and any other books by Richard Preston. He writes books that aren’t incredibly complicated, but at the same time keep you constantly thinking no matter what. He addresses views that no other authors do. He is a one of a kind author.