The Andromeda Strain

Pre-eminent biophysicists give the United States government a warning: current decontamination procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to prevent sterile re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. They recommend the construction of an isolated laboratory facility, equipped with a nuclear self-destruction mechanism, for the analysis and--if necessary--containment of any foreign organisms that may be introduced. Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the upper atmosphere to collect organisms for study. One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area in Arizona. Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants. An unknown pathogen has been released . . .