Richard Preston’s Idea of Nature

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Introduction

Richard Preston’s scientific literature provides some evidence of his enthusiasm for environmental and biological conservation, research, and development. In addition, it shows his perception of emerging diseases, environmental hazards and possible effects on the environment, nature and the world population in general (Adamson, 2011). Preston uses his writing to develop both fiction and nonfiction stories relating to science, especially in biology. His work, such as “The Dead Forest” and “Hot Zone”, attempts to inform his audience of the possibilities of the emergence of new and killer organisms and viruses that have an adverse effect on nature and humanity. He is of the opinion that humans need to study their environment in a better way and develop a new perspective to develop better intervention methods to deal with sudden events such as Ebola infection and parasitic attack.

Life and scientific work of Richard Preston

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 5^th August 1954, Richard Preston became a famous writer with ‘The New Yorker’ magazine, writing frequent scientific articles (Book Browse, 2011). His work includes both fiction and nonfiction articles and books, mainly in biological and war sciences. Preston grew up in Wellesley area of Boston, where he received his early education.

After subsequent rejections by Pomona College in Southern California, Preston called the dean once per week until the college finally accepted to admit him. Here, he excelled in academics and graduated “summa cum laude”. He secured a position at Princeton University for his undergraduate, master and PhD degrees in English. In addition, he met his wife at the university.

Since he left school, Preston has written numerous scientific articles for “The New Yorker” Magazine. In addition, he has authored a number of books such as ‘First Light’, ‘American Steel’, ‘The Cobra Event’, ‘The Hot Zone’, ‘Wild Trees’ and ‘The Demon in the Freezer’ (Book Browse, 2011). ‘The Hot Zone’ was published in 2002 after Preston developed an interest in the deadly viruses associated with human-ape contact in Central and East Africa.

A review of ‘The Hot Zone’ and the events of deadly viruses of east and central Africa

Preston’s book starts with an analysis of the actual events in Africa. The frequent emergence of Ebola Virus in Central and East Africa since 1976 has been one of the most deadly events in which thousands of lives are threatened by natural viruses emerging from human-ape contact (Lashley & Durham, 2009). Before Preston developed an interest in these events, thousands of people had died from strange viruses such as Marburg and simian viruses in central Africa. The first Ebola outbreak was recorded in 1976 at Nzara, Southern Sudan. The incidence rates and mortality rates were very high. For instance, 9 out of 10 people infected were dying within a few hours after infection (Shetty, Tang & Andrews, 2009). The spread of the disease is rapid because the virus causes bleeding from almost all body orifices. In addition, infection occurs due to contact with human fluids and skin. In addition, the disease is airborne. The World Health Organization immediately developed an emergency warning to governments and organizations in the region. Biomedical science tests revealed that the cause of death is a virus related to the Marburg Virus. Noteworthy, Marburg had previously caused massive infections and deaths at Yambuku Catholic village in North-Central Zaire (the modern Democratic Republic of the Congo). It was also evident that the virus resided in wild animals, especially primates. For instance, a number of Philippine monkeys at an animal housing facility in Reston, Virginia, had infections with symptoms similar to the one identified in the Ebola Virus. In fact, the CDC and special secret military wing (SWAT) had been deployed to destroy the Reston facility, although scientific tests later found that the virus could not affect humans (Preston, 1994). However, Richard Preston writes in his book “…the earth may increase its immune responses against humans…” to describe how natural viruses and microorganisms can turn out to be a major threat to humanity (Preston, 1994).

Preston’s book “The Hot Zone: A terrifying True Story”, is based on the events in central and East Africa during the Ebola Virus epidemic. As the title of the book says, it is based on a nonfiction story about the origins and incidents of viruses belonging to the viral class ‘haemorrhagic fevers’. In particular, he pays much attention to Ebola and Marburg viruses, which have been killing thousands of people in the region in every event (Preston, 1994).

In general, Preston divided his book into four sections for clarity. In the first section, he explains the history and origins of members of the viral group Filovirus and HIV in Africa. Here, the author uses the story of an American tourist Charles Monet who visits a cave known as Kitum in Mount Elgon, Kenya. The author attempts to show that Monet must have been the first person to contract MARV, which starts with headache and back pains before proceeding to haemorrhages (Preston, 1994). After noticing the initial symptoms, Monet’s friends book him a flight with the Kenya Airways for further treatment at Nairobi Hospital. Here, doctors become suspicions of the conditions after noting Monet’s abnormal symptoms. While still in the waiting room at the Nairobi Hospital, Monet’s conditions deteriorate to an extent that he develops extensive haemorrhage and failure of internal organs. One of the doctors, a young and promising woman known as Nancy Jaax (pseudo name), develops an interest in Monet’s condition. However, she is also infected with the virus. At this point, Preston elaborates the story of Nancy Jaax at the hospital, the measures taken to prevent further infections and the emergency measures taken by the government of Kenya and the World Health Organization. In addition, Preston uses this chance to explain some biomedical and molecular aspects of these infectious agents as well as the clinical aspects of their infections. In addition, Preston interviews the scientist who named the virus “Ebola” in an attempt to produce a good account of the scientific and clinical aspects of the disease in his book.

In the second section of his book, Preston describes and reviews the discovery of the Reston virus at the Reston facility in Virginia. In addition, he describes the emergency response to the situation by the American government through the army and CDC (Preston, 1994). In the third section of the book, the author has used scientific evidence to show the similarities between the Reston virus and the hemorrhagic viruses isolated from Monet, other Ebola patients and monkeys in Africa. Preston provides molecular evidence from the viral RNAs and their cDNA after intensive studies in Kenya, the US and Germany. He notes that the viruses have similar molecular characteristics with the Reston virus previously studied in Virginia. In fact, he notes that the same contamination channels are involved in the two types of viruses. Clinical conditions are also similar, but the viruses are different in that Reston cannot infect humans due to lack of a single protein that attaches to human cells on its surface (Preston, 1994).

In the last section of his book, Preston has elaborated the story of the Kitum Cave at Mount Elgon area of Kenya. He attempts to argue that the cave must have been a home to monkeys that act as the virus’s natural host (reservoirs). He believes that the caves in the forests surrounding Mount Elgon are dangerous for humans because these animals reside there. It is also in this section that Richard Preston explains his journey to Africa, in which he intends to explore Mount Elgon and the Kitum Cave. While on this journey, Preston discusses some diseases such as AIDS. He protects himself with Hazmat Suit (a scientific protection against viruses), before entering the cave (Preston, 1994). Here, he encounters a large number of monkeys. He takes photographs of the animals in their natural habitats and notes that some of them could have been harbouring the virus. After concluding the journey, he goes to Reston and finds the damages done by the American government. However, he concludes that even after the destruction, such deadly viruses are subject to return and infect millions of lives in future.

The article “A death in the forest” and Preston’s idea of organisms

Preston’s article was written on “The New Yorker” on December 7 2007. It is a letter about a rare parasitic attack on the American hemlock trees at the Great Smoky Mountains. The article seeks to examine the possible outcomes of the parasitic attack. He seems to argue that the future of the trees, as well as that of other plants, is put at risk because little is known about the parasites. Preston describes the event in which an insect originating in Asia started attacking eastern hemlocks in Richmond Forest sometimes in 1951(Preston, 2007). The insect, known as the hemlock woolly adelgid, is a tiny burg that lives in hemlocks. It is also related to aphids. The article has described the life cycle of the parasite and the high fertility rate it possesses. In addition, Preston shows that the parasitic attack kills more than 90% of the trees in any forest, causing a massive environmental damage (Preston, 2007).

In late 1940s, the American chemical company Bayer is said to have developed a chemical insecticide, the Imidacloprid that is easily carried up by the hemlock root system from the soil (Boynton, 2010). It kills the bugs that attempt to attack the trees. However, the chemical was slow, which caused the death of many trees.

Similar to the African event, Preston visits the Cataloochee Valley Forest to examine the impact of the parasites. The arborist Will Blozan accompanies Preston. Here, they find most of the hemlock trees eliminated by the parasites. Preston has shown that the trees could be revived by scientific efforts such Blozan’s Tsuga Search Project (Preston, 2007). However, he attempts to show that the impact of natural organism such as parasites subject nature to a dark future.

Conclusion

From the two works, Preston has shown his interest explaining how nature can sometimes lead to elimination of certain species. Using the virus example, the author attempts to show that natural viruses are a real threat to human life. Using the parasite example, the author attempts to describe how lack of proper knowledge of nature can lead to a complicated future. Some organisms are likely to become extinct have an adverse effect on the environment. He is of the opinion that humans need to study their environment in a better way and from a better perspective in order to develop better intervention methods to deal with such events as Ebola infection and parasitic attack.

References

Adamson, L. G. (2011).Thematic Guide to Popular Nonfiction. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Boynton, S. R. (2010). Richard Preston: A death in the forest. New Journalism. Web.

Book Browse. (2011). Richard Preston: Author Bio.

Lashley, F. R., & Durham, J. D. (2009). Emerging Infectious Diseases: Trends and Issues. Washington, DC: Springer.

Preston, R. (1994). The hot zone. New York: Random House.

Preston, R. (2007). A Death in the Forest. The New Yorker. P 64-83.

Shetty, N., Tang, J. W., & Andrews, J. (2009). Infectious Disease: Pathogenesis, Prevention and Case Studies. New York, NY: John Willey and Sons.

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