Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Jurassic Park, a masterpiece by Michael Crichton, opens with strange incidents taking place close to an island named Isla Nublar (near Costa Rica). Creatures, similar to lizards but walking on their hind legs, are attacking young children and new born babies. One of the doctors, who is treating the patients who have been attacked, is able to obtain the body of this strange animal but is unable to identify its species. He doubts it to be a species of some animal which was believed to be extinct. To confirm his doubts, he sends some photographs of this animal to Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist.
On the other hand, InGen (a genetic engineering firm) is procuring high technology super computers (used for genetic engineering) and amber from around the globe. The founder of InGen, John Hammond, invites Dr. Grant and his student, Ellie Sattler to visit his ‘amusement park’ in Isla Nublar. Dr. Grant and Ellie Sattler accompany chaos theory mathematician Ian Malcolm to the tour of this amusement park known as the Jurassic Park. Also, accompanying them is Donald Gennaro and Hammond’s grandchildren Tim and Lex Murphy.
Jurassic Park is actually a wildlife-reserve for genetically reengineered and brought-back-to-life dinosaurs. These dinosaurs have been recreated by obtaining the DNA fragments of dinosaurs found in mosquitoes which were trapped in amber sometime in the era when dinosaurs ruled the earth. These DNA fragments were ‘completed’ by combining them with the DNAs of present reptiles (eg: frog). Once created, they are left out in their enclosures in the reserves which are surrounded by high-voltage electrical fences. All the activities of the dinosaurs are monitored with the help of motion sensors by a central computer in the main control room.
On taking the tour of the park, Dr. Grant and Ellie Sattler are extremely impressed but Ian Malcolm believes that the park is going to fail. According to chaos theory, he states that the park, like nature, is an extremely complex system which has a lot of variables. All these variables cannot be controlled simultaneously and hence, their behavior is highly unpredictable. He says that the Jurassic Park is a disaster waiting to happen. He also predicts that it would be the park fences that will be the first thing to fail and the park will then be pushed completely out of control.
Soon Malcolm finds out that the dinosaurs have been breeding despite InGen’s efforts to make them sterile (by making them all females). Due to the presence of frog DNA in some of the dinosaur species, they are able to change their sex and convert themselves to males and hence, reproduce. As a defense strategy, InGen had made them dependent on lysine but the dinosaurs are feeding on food (like chicken) which is already rich in lysine.
The action begins when Denis Nedry, the chief programmer at the Jurassic Park, tries to steal certain dinosaur eggs from Jurassic Park for InGen’s competitor, Biosyn Corporation. In order to do so, he has to turn the park’s electrical security system off for fifteen minutes during which he plans to successfully transfer the embryos to a small ship waiting at one of the docks on the island. But on switching the electricity off, he also switches off the electrical fences of the dinosaurs. Also, he looses his way to the dock because of bad weather and is attacked by a dilophosaurus and gets killed. The dinosaurs now find their way out of their enclosures and gruesome encounters with the scientists follow. Somehow, the scientists are able to get out of the island and the island is razed by the Costa Rican Air Force. But some dinaosaurs, the velociraptors and the procompsagnathids (compys), are also able to migrate out of the island onto the mainland. The story ends with Hammond killed by compys and the others detained indefinitely by the Costa Rican Government.
On the other hand, InGen (a genetic engineering firm) is procuring high technology super computers (used for genetic engineering) and amber from around the globe. The founder of InGen, John Hammond, invites Dr. Grant and his student, Ellie Sattler to visit his ‘amusement park’ in Isla Nublar. Dr. Grant and Ellie Sattler accompany chaos theory mathematician Ian Malcolm to the tour of this amusement park known as the Jurassic Park. Also, accompanying them is Donald Gennaro and Hammond’s grandchildren Tim and Lex Murphy.
Jurassic Park is actually a wildlife-reserve for genetically reengineered and brought-back-to-life dinosaurs. These dinosaurs have been recreated by obtaining the DNA fragments of dinosaurs found in mosquitoes which were trapped in amber sometime in the era when dinosaurs ruled the earth. These DNA fragments were ‘completed’ by combining them with the DNAs of present reptiles (eg: frog). Once created, they are left out in their enclosures in the reserves which are surrounded by high-voltage electrical fences. All the activities of the dinosaurs are monitored with the help of motion sensors by a central computer in the main control room.
On taking the tour of the park, Dr. Grant and Ellie Sattler are extremely impressed but Ian Malcolm believes that the park is going to fail. According to chaos theory, he states that the park, like nature, is an extremely complex system which has a lot of variables. All these variables cannot be controlled simultaneously and hence, their behavior is highly unpredictable. He says that the Jurassic Park is a disaster waiting to happen. He also predicts that it would be the park fences that will be the first thing to fail and the park will then be pushed completely out of control.
Soon Malcolm finds out that the dinosaurs have been breeding despite InGen’s efforts to make them sterile (by making them all females). Due to the presence of frog DNA in some of the dinosaur species, they are able to change their sex and convert themselves to males and hence, reproduce. As a defense strategy, InGen had made them dependent on lysine but the dinosaurs are feeding on food (like chicken) which is already rich in lysine.
The action begins when Denis Nedry, the chief programmer at the Jurassic Park, tries to steal certain dinosaur eggs from Jurassic Park for InGen’s competitor, Biosyn Corporation. In order to do so, he has to turn the park’s electrical security system off for fifteen minutes during which he plans to successfully transfer the embryos to a small ship waiting at one of the docks on the island. But on switching the electricity off, he also switches off the electrical fences of the dinosaurs. Also, he looses his way to the dock because of bad weather and is attacked by a dilophosaurus and gets killed. The dinosaurs now find their way out of their enclosures and gruesome encounters with the scientists follow. Somehow, the scientists are able to get out of the island and the island is razed by the Costa Rican Air Force. But some dinaosaurs, the velociraptors and the procompsagnathids (compys), are also able to migrate out of the island onto the mainland. The story ends with Hammond killed by compys and the others detained indefinitely by the Costa Rican Government.
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