Toxin Quotes

“The sky was an immense, inverted bowl of gray clouds that arched from one flat horizon to the other. It was the kind of sky that hovered over the American Midwest. In the summer the ground would be awash in a sea of corn and soybeans. But now in the depths of winter it was a frozen stubble with patches of dirty snow and a few lonely, leafless, skeletonized trees.

The leaden clouds had excreted a lazy drizzle all day-more of a mist than a rain. But by two o'clock the precipitation had abated and the sin-gle functioning windshield wiper of the aged, recycled UPS delivery van was no longer necessary as the vehicle negotiated a rutted dirt road.”
― Robin Cook, Toxin

“Back when molecular biology was in its infancy, a doomsday scenario was envisioned that scared everybody: a researcher would give an E. coli bacterium the ability to manufacture the botulism toxin, and then bacteria would inadvertently get released into nature."

"It's a good analogy," Kathleen said. "Especially considering that with the emergence of E. coli O157:H7 nature probably didn't do it on its own. Man helped."

"How so?" Kim asked.

"I believe E. coli O157:H7 has come from the intense farming techniques that are in use today," Kathleen said. "The need for cheap protein to feed the animals has resulted in creative but disgusting solutions. Cows are fed rendered animals, including themselves. Even chicken manure is being widely used."

"You're joking!" Kim said.

"I wish," Kathleen said. "And on top of that, the animals are given antibiotics. It creates a soup within the animals intestines that fosters new strains. In fact the E. coli O157:H7 was created when the shigella toxin DNA was transferred along with the DNA necessary for a particular antibiotic resistance.”
― Robin Cook, Toxin

“Conjugation is bacteria's answer to sexual reproduction, a method of genetic shuffling.”
― Robin Cook, Toxin

“don’t remember this problem as a child,” Kim said. “I used to eat raw hamburger all the time.”
― Robin Cook, Toxin

“Kim thought about complaining that his time was more valuable than the”
― Robin Cook, Toxin

“Supply and Why We Are Increasingly at Risk
(Basic Books, 1997; Penguin, 1998).”
― Robin Cook, Toxin

“grates. As he worked, he was reminded of the myth of Sisyphus and the cruel king’s terrible fate. No sooner had Kim cleared an area of its filth than it became refouled with a fresh”
― Robin Cook, Toxin