To an outsider, the most significant innovation in the global warming controversy is the overt reliance that is being placed on models. Back in the days of nuclear winter, computer models were invoked to add weight to a conclusion: “These results are derived with the help of a computer model.” But now, large-scale computer models are seen as generating data in themselves. No longer are models judged by how well they reproduce data from the real world—increasingly, models provide the data. As if they were themselves a reality. – Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton (1942-2009) was famous for books such as The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World, all made into blockbuster movies. He planned on becoming a writer, but after beginning studies in 1960 at Harvard, he submitted an essay by George Orwell under his own name, earning a mark of “B−”. He said, “Now Orwell was a wonderful writer, and if a B-minus was all he could get, I thought I’d better drop English as my major.” So he reluctantly decided to go to Medical School, obtaining an MD in 1969. He grew disenchanted with medicine, which emphasized the interests and reputations of doctors over the interests of patients. He never practiced medicine, but by 1966 he published his first book Odds On under the name John Lange, so that his patients wouldn’t worry that they might be used for his plots.

Crichton’s fourth novel in 1968 was A Case of Need, a medical thriller where a pathologist investigates an apparent illegal abortion conducted by an obstetrician friend, causing the death of a young woman. The novel incorporated technology into the medical practice, earning him Edgar Award in 1969. Under his own name, The Andromeda Strain (1969) established Crichton as a best-selling author. It describes scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that fatally clots human blood within two minutes. The film rights were sold for $250,000 and adapted into a successful 1971 movie.