“Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science” by Richard Preston (Random House, 2008)

Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and The Wild Trees, returns with Panic in Level 4, featuring six of his articles which have appeared over the recent years, in some form, in the New Yorker.  While the title refers to the highest level, Bio Safety Level 4 (BL-4), of biosecurity in the laboratory, the articles run the gamut of subjects from the number Π, to the search for the origin of Ebola, to a unique type of cannibal.

In Preston’s introduction, “Adventures in Nonfiction Writing,” he tells a story of the time when he was finally granted access to Level 4, offering description step by step as he is taken to the room where the suits are, each baring the name of its owner, and is handed a suit with no name; Preston takes this as a bad sign.  Inside Level 4, Preston observes these daredevil scientists who face the risk of infection and death as their day job, watching them investigate blood samples of a possible Ebola victim.  As Preston bends down to look into a microscope, the front part of his suit bursts open and Preston is rushed from the lab and checked for Ebola infection.  Since Panic in Level 4 has been written and published, Preston obviously survived his brush with one of the most lethal viruses ever discovered.

In “The Mountains of Pi,” we meet two brothers who live in a small apartment in New York and spend their time building supercomputers and furthering their research into Π and its possible pattern.  In “The Search for Ebola,” Preston travels to different countries in Africa, tracing the history of Ebola outbreaks to their original sources in an attempt to find the genesis of the deadly virus.  In other articles, Preston discovers a treasure-trove of wondrous trees in the most unlikeliest of places; as well as the finding of an ancient tapestry at the Metropolitan Museum that when turned over for repair, reveals a back side that has rarely seen the light, still in its original breathtaking detail.  In the final article, “The Self-Cannibals,” Preston educates the reader about the rare disease Lesch-Nyahn syndrome, where a single altered letter in one’s DNA makeup creates the occasional mental state that your limbs are out to attack you and must be stopped through self-cannibalism and self destruction.  Preston meets and becomes friends with sufferers of the syndrome, revealing a human side to this devastating disease, making the reader realize that even those these people are threatened by their very own body, they are still people just like you or I.

Preston seems justifiably proud about the fact that he seeks out the humanity in the difficult subjects he writes about, and in this way it is accessible and understandable to anyone, no matter your background.  Panic in Level 4 aims to not just educate the reader in some of the mysteries of this world, but also to reveal the complexity and incredible brilliance of the human species.

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Originally written on June 26th 2008 ©Alex C. Telander.