judith@proper.UUCP (Judith Abrahms) (08/13/85)
I haven't seen _The_Andromeda_Strain_ in a few years, but I began to wonder about this recently. As the scientists who are to investigate the bug are taken deeper and deeper into the lab complex, they are progressively cleaned, shaven, disinfected, weaned from real food, etc. etc. etc., so they will be REALLY clean when they get to the lowest level. What for? They never interact with anything important except through waldos and other interfaces built to eliminate contact, so what's the difference?
okie@ihuxi.UUCP (Cobb) (08/14/85)
> I haven't seen _The_Andromeda_Strain_ in a few years, but I began to wonder > about this recently. As the scientists who are to investigate the bug are > taken deeper and deeper into the lab complex, they are progressively cleaned, > shaven, disinfected, weaned from real food, etc. etc. etc., so they will be > REALLY clean when they get to the lowest level. > > What for? > > They never interact with anything important except through waldos and other > interfaces built to eliminate contact, so what's the difference? The idea is to prevent any *possibility* of contaminating the organism to be studied/developed. People still have to handle equipment; gaskets break; even the best isolation systems can break down from time to time. If that happens, there's much less chance of contaminating the organism from a clean body than a (relatively speaking) dirty one. Also, the defense barriers between organisms being studied and the people studying them don't have to be as elaborate when the body is cleaner (although the Andromeda Strain seems to belie that principle). B.K.Cobb ihnp4!ihuxi!okie
jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) (08/14/85)
In article <207@proper.UUCP> judith@proper.UUCP (judith) writes: >I haven't seen _The_Andromeda_Strain_ in a few years, but I began to wonder >about this recently. As the scientists who are to investigate the bug are >taken deeper and deeper into the lab complex, they are progressively cleaned, >shaven, disinfected, weaned from real food, etc. etc. etc., so they will be >REALLY clean when they get to the lowest level. > >What for? > >They never interact with anything important except through waldos and other >interfaces built to eliminate contact, so what's the difference? The part of the installation outside the isolation chamber has neato detectors that shoot off alarms if they find any micro-organisms in the air. This is a reasonable precaution, considering that the micro-organisms may be nasty. To avoid false alarms, all benign micro-organisms were removed from all personnel going to that level. (Since any alarm started the countdown on a nuke, they were justifiably concerned about avoiding false ones.) Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo
terry@nrcvax.UUCP (Terry Grevstad) (08/15/85)
judith@proper.UUCP (judith) says: >I haven't seen _The_Andromeda_Strain_ in a few years, but I began to wonder >about this recently. As the scientists who are to investigate the bug are >taken deeper and deeper into the lab complex, they are progressively cleaned, >shaven, disinfected, weaned from real food, etc. etc. etc., so they will be >REALLY clean when they get to the lowest level. > >What for? > >They never interact with anything important except through waldos and other >interfaces built to eliminate contact, so what's the difference? Not only that, but I have it on good authority (various doctors and nurses) that if they went through all that high level disinfecting they would have been very dead. Especially the part where they burn off the top layer of skin. That much burning over the entire body would probably kill anything. -- \"\t\f1A\h'+1m'\f4\(mo\h'+1m'\f1the\h'+1m'\f4\(es\t\f1\c _______________________________________________________________________ Terry Grevstad Network Research Corporation {sdcsvax,hplabs}!sdcrdcf!psivax!nrcvax!terry ucbvax!calma!nrcvax!terry
chabot@miles.DEC (All God's chillun got guns) (08/16/85)
> I haven't seen _The_Andromeda_Strain_ in a few years, but I began to wonder > about this recently. As the scientists who are to investigate the bug are > taken deeper and deeper into the lab complex, they are progressively cleaned, > shaven, disinfected, weaned from real food, etc. etc. etc., so they will be > REALLY clean when they get to the lowest level. > > What for? Drama! (not to mention titillation) L S Chabot ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot chabot%amber.dec@decwrl.arpa
ecl@mtgzz.UUCP (e.c.leeper) (08/17/85)
The difference is that although there are waldos, etc., there is still some chance of contamination through a faulty seal, etc. Why does a surgeon scrub his/her hands before an operation? He/She is just going to put gloves on on top of them anyway. :-) Evelyn C. Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl
#d22%ddathd21.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA (08/20/85)
From: <#d22%ddathd21.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA> (Ralf Bayer) >From: proper!judith@topaz.arpa (Judith Abrahms) >I haven't seen _The_Andromeda_Strain_ in a few years, but I began to >wonder about this recently. As the scientists who are to >investigate the bug are taken deeper and deeper into the lab >complex, they are progressively cleaned, shaven, disinfected, weaned >from real food, etc. etc. etc., so they will be REALLY clean when >they get to the lowest level. >They never interact with anything important except through waldos >and other interfaces built to eliminate contact, so what's the >difference? As far as I remember (from reading the book) it was to prevent possible interaction between Earth's bacteria and the "Thing from outside", should the scientists accidentially get in contact with the virus from space. They were always afraid that something even worse than the strange virus could develop. Ralf (#d22%ddathd21.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA) (Beware of the number sign (#) - it's part of my User-ID)
myers@utcsri.UUCP (Brad A. Myers) (08/30/85)
But if the organism escapes from the isolation in the movie, then the entire lab is automatically blown up by an atomic bomb! Clearly, the designers NEVER expected the alien bugs to get out of their isolation areas, and if I was designing an isolation area for *alien* bugs, I would certainly make it totally impervious to all *known* bugs. Therefore, the "sterilization" of the humans is *totally* rediculous, as the original poster claimed.