Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
The Lost World (Michael Crichton)
The Lost World is a 1995 novel by Michael Crichton. It is a sequel to his earlier novel Jurassic Park. A paperback edition was issued in New York by Ballantine Books in 1996 with ISBN 034540288X. The book was later made in to a 1997 film, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which is considerably different from the book that inspired it.
Like Arthur Conan Doyle's novel of the same name, Crichton's novel concerns an expedition to an isolated Central American location where dinosaurs roam - though in this case, the dinosaurs were recreated by genetic engineering, rather than surviving from antiquity.
The eccentric mathematician Ian Malcolm and the egocentric paleontologist Richard Levine head to Isla Sorna to invesigate extinction theories in the "Lost World" left by InGen's cloning program. They are joined by material engineer Jack 'Doc' Thorne, Thorne's chief mechanic Eddie Carr, field biologist Sarah Harding, and two stowaway kids: Arby Benton and Kelly Curtis. Also on the island is the antagonist Lewis Dodgson and his two henchman, Howard King and George Baselton.
As with the first book, the characters have to fend off attacks from T-Rexes and raptors, as well as carnotauri. Between the action scenes Malcolm and Levine talk about various evolutionary and extinction theories, as well as the nature of modern science and the homogenizing and destructive nature of humanity. The book discusses the role of prions in brain diseases, which has been at the root of concerns over Mad Cow Disease.
Unlike the movie, there are no T-Rexes attacking San Diego.
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