Panic in Level 4

parasite An organism that lives on or inside another organism, its host, and feeds on the host, being harmful to the host or of no benefit to it.

pi (?) The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Expressed in decimals, pi goes 3.14159…and continues infinitely, without periodically repeating. Pi is a transcendental number.

pubic symphysis An area in the lower front of the pelvis where the pelvic bones join in a suture filled with cartilage.

red diarrhea, the The local Congolese term for an Ebola virus infection during the 1995 outbreak in Kikwit, Congo.

self-mutilation, compulsive Uncontrollable physical self-injury, such as self-biting. In Lesch-Nyhan syndrome it arises ultimately from a defect in the gene that codes for the HPRT protein, though the exact mechanism of the disease is unknown.

strebelid flies Parasitic wingless flies that crawl and live on bats. A conjectured possible natural host of the Ebola virus.

supercomputer One of the world’s most powerful computers for its time.

TIGR The Institute for Genomic Research, a nonprofit research institute dedicated to sequencing genomes, now part of the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland.

transcendental number A number that is not the exact solution to any polynomial equation that has a finite number of terms with integer coefficients. See pi.

tubular cast, throwing a Expelling through the anus a sleevelike lining of the intestines and rectum.

Unicorn Tapestries, the Seven tapestries of large size and exceptional preservation and beauty (though one of them is now in fragments), originally woven around 1500 in Brussels or Liege, now hanging in the Cloisters Museum in New York City. The Unicorn Tapestries are considered to be among the great works of art of all time.

virus A disease-causing agent smaller than a bacterium consisting of a shell made of proteins and membranes and a core containing DNA or RNA. A virus is a parasite that can replicate only inside living cells, using the machinery of the cell to make more copies of itself.

warp, weft Strong, straight noncolored threads (warp threads) and delicate undulating colored threads (weft threads) are woven to form a tapestry. In many late medieval tapestries, including the Unicorn Tapestries, the warp threads run horizontally and the weft threads run vertically.

wet lab An underground room at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art where tapestries and works of fabric art are washed, conserved, and photographed.

Zarate procedure A surgical procedure whereby the bones of the pelvis are cut in front, at the location of the pubic symphysis, the cut running through a suture of cartilage there. It causes the pelvis to spring open. The Zarate procedure is a crude but effective way of releasing a baby stuck in the birth canal.

Acknowledgments

The principal thanks in this book must be given to the people who are portrayed in it. They often patiently and generously submittted to the sort of tedious questioning that I gave Nancy Jaax when I examined her hands. I’m especially grateful to: Nancy Jaax; “Jeremy” “Martha” Gregory and Christine Chudnovsky; David Chudnovsky and Nicole Lannegrace; the late Malka Benjaminovna Chudnovsky; the late Herbert Robbins; Richard Askey; William T. Close; Will Blozan; Heidi Blozan; Rusty Rhea; Kristine Johnson; Tom Remaley; Tim Tigner; Lee Frelich; Carolyn Mahan; Richard Evans; James Akerson; Christopher Asaro; Stephen C. Sillett; D. Scott Sillett; Robert Van Pelt; J. Craig Venter; Claire Fraser; Hamilton O. Smith; Marshall R. Peterson; James D. Watson; Eric S. Lander; Norton Zinder; Francis Collins; Gene Meyers; Jeffrey and Tondra Lynford; Morton H. Meyerson; Tom Morgan; Peter Barnet; Barbara Bridgers; Scott Geffert; Joseph Coscia, Jr.; Oi-Cheong Lee; Timothy Husband; William L. Nyhan; Michael Lesch; Nancy Esterly; James Elrod; James Elrod’s sister; the late and beloved Jim Murphy; all the members of the Murphy family I met, who gave so generously of their time and thought; Andy Pereira; Steve Glenn; Tracye Overby; Michael Roth; Christopher Reeves; Brad Alerich; H. A. Jinnah; Takaomi Taira; Philippe Coubes.

Many thanks to Tim Bartlett, my editor at Random House, who is the overall editor of this book. Many thanks also to Tina Bennett and Lynn Nesbit at Janklow & Nesbit Associates. At The New Yorker, past and present, I’m grateful to the following people for their contributions to various parts of this book: Robert Gottlieb, Tina Brown, David Remnick, John Bennet, Sharon DeLano, Dorothy Wickenden, Amy Davidson, Peter Canby, Martin Baron, Ann Goldstein, Elisabeth Biondi, Elizabeth Culbert, and the late Miss Eleanor Gould (Eleanor Packard); while the following checkers worked on certain parts: Hal Espen (“The Mountains of Pi”); Christopher Jennings and Michael Peed (“A Death in the Forest”); Bill Vourvoulias and Daniel Hurewitz (“The Search for Ebola”); Andy Young (“The Human Kabbalah”); Marina Harss (“The Lost Unicorn”); and Lila Byock and Jessica Rosenberg (“The Self-Cannibals”). Any errors of fact in this book are my responsibility, though where I got things right, very often a checker was involved.

My wife, Michelle, and our children, Marguerite, Laura, and Oliver, with their endless curiosity and openness to new things, inspired this book. They were also present for some of the interviews in “The Lost Unicorn,” and they have had their own friendship with the Chudnovsky family and asked their own questions. Michelle, who worked as a checker at The New Yorker, inspired me in fact-checking. She continues to inspire me in far greater ways than that.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RICHARD PRESTON is the bestselling author of The Hot Zone, The Cobra Event, The Demon in the Freezer, and The Wild Trees. A writer for The New Yorker since 1985, Preston won the American Institute of Physics Award and is the only non-doctor ever to have received the CDC’s Champion of Prevention Award. He also has an asteroid named after him. He lives near New York City with his wife and three children.

ALSO BY RICHARD PRESTON

First Light

American Steel

The Hot Zone

The Cobra Event

The Demon in the Freezer

The Boat of Dreams: A Christmas Story

The Wild Trees

Copyright

Copyright © 2008 by Richard Preston