Micro

In a locked office building in Honolulu, three men lie dead. Their bodies are covered in ultrafine, razor-sharp cuts, and nothing suggests a struggle. The only clue is a tiny bladed robot, almost too small for the eye to see.

Elsewhere, seven graduate students in Cambridge, Massachusetts, each at the front of their field, are recruited by Nanigen MicroTechnologies, a pioneering microbiology start-up. The company sends them to a mysterious lab in Hawaii and promises tools that will open up a new scientific frontier.

The backdrop is biological prospecting in the forests of Oahu, where new technology is turning up trillions of microorganisms and tens of thousands of bacteria species. Researchers are hunting for valuable drugs and other applications on an unprecedented scale.

Once the students reach the Oahu rain forest, they land in a hostile wilderness where danger waits around every turn. They have only their knowledge of the natural world, and they become prey to a technology of extreme power. Survival depends on turning the forces of nature to their own use.

This science thriller pits nature against technology and mixes scientific fact with invention. Michael Crichton's work was completed by science writer Richard Preston.