John Michael Crichton was born in Chicago in October 1942. Educated at Harvard, Crichton paid his wa through !

edical school there b writing thrillers under various pseudon !s. "#ter graduation, he published his #irst #ull$length novel under his own na!e, The Andromeda Strain %19&9', which was a bestseller. "lthough Crichton has written in nu!erous conte(ts, his !ost #a!ous wor)s, such as Jurassic Park %199*', co!bine conte!porar technical and theoretical scienti#ic #indings with #ast$paced, ! ster or thriller plots. His boo)s have been translated into thirt languages and been !ade into eleven #il!s. Crichton also created and produced the popular television series o# the late 199*s, ER. +n 2***, a newl discovered s!all dinosaur was na!ed a#ter hi!, Bienosaurus crichtoni. - the end o# the twentieth centur , co!puters had #ound a place in !an "!erican ho!es. .he /nited 0tates had harnessed nuclear power decades ago, doctors had long since discovered antibiotics, and the scienti#ic co!!unit was read #or a new !a!!oth brea)through. 1enetic engineering loo!ed as an i!portant #ield, wide open with possible applications in ever thing #ro! !edicine to cos!etics. Just seven ears a#ter the publication o# Jurassic Park, -ritish scientists success#ull cloned a sheep. "lthough it certainl would have been i!possible #or a scenario li)e the one portra ed in Crichton2s novel to have actuall occurred in 199*3and !ost scientists still regard the li)elihood o# ever success#ull cloning dinosaurs sli!3the novel gave !an readers their #irst e(posure to the possibilities o# genetics and bioengineering. Jurassic Park also populari4ed the !athe!atical #ield o# chaos theor . 5or #our centuries, the laws o# ph sics i!plied a co!plete connection between cause and e##ect in nature. +t was presu!ed that it was alwa s possible to !a)e accurate long$ter! predictions o# ph sical s ste!s, as long as one )new the starting conditions well enough. .he discover o# chaotic s ste!s in nature around the turn o# the twentieth centur all but destro ed that notion. +n the novel, Malcol!2s interpretation o# chaos theor asserts that Jurassic 6ar), as a co!ple( ph sical s ste!, will progress in a drasticall unpredictable !anner that will inevitabl result in disaster, regardless o# the precautions that have been ta)en. Chaos theor and bioengineering ethics were alread nascent topics o# discussion when Crichton too) the! on in Jurassic Park. .he success o# his novel, especiall a#ter its release as a !a7or !otion picture, vaulted these topics into the global spotlight. Crichton2s novel, however, criti8ues !ore than !erel the large co!panies that have the potential to abuse the vast power o# genetics. +n the novel, John Ha!!ond creates a par) run al!ost entirel b the auto!ation o# a huge co!puter s ste!. .he s ste! has bugs3de#ects that prove disastrous over the course o# one twent $#our$hour period. Jurassic Park, written at a ti!e when the whole world was co!puteri4ing see!ingl all aspects o# dail li#e, is also a criti8ue o# such incessant !oderni4ation and auto!ation. .he novel was published 7ust ten ears be#ore the predicted turn$o#$ the$!illenniu! 9:2;9 co!puter disaster had businesses across the globe scra!bling to reassess their technological preparedness. Crichton see!s prescient and war o# this trend, Malcol!2s chaos$theor calculations o# catastrophe, in addition to showing o## hip scienti#ic lingo, serve as a warning #or a societ increasingl dependent on technolog .