Andromeda strain

English

Etymology

After The Andromeda Strain (1969), techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in Arizona.

Noun

Andromeda strain (plural Andromeda strains)

1. Any microorganism whose release and spread could cause a public health catastrophe.
   • 1977, Frank Woolner, Trout Hunting, page 215:

     Trout are important to those of us who enjoy angling, but trout are unimportant if this Andromeda Strain of destruction without replacement—which began more than 200 years ago and burgeoned in the twentieth century—continues.

   • 2004, David Gere, How to Make Dances in an Epidemic:

     John Langone, a science writer for Discover magazine, characterizes the popular view of AIDS in 1985 as an “Andromeda strain with the transmission efficiency of the common cold.”