In “The Mountains of Pi,” we meet two brothers who live in a small apartment in New York and spend their time building supercomputers and furthering their research into Π and its possible pattern. Since Panic in Level 4 has been written and published, Preston obviously survived his brush with one of the most lethal viruses ever discovered. As Preston bends down to look into a microscope, the front part of his suit bursts open and Preston is rushed from the lab and checked for Ebola infection. Inside Level 4, Preston observes these daredevil scientists who face the risk of infection and death as their day job, watching them investigate blood samples of a possible Ebola victim. In Preston’s introduction, “Adventures in Nonfiction Writing,” he tells a story of the time when he was finally granted access to Level 4, offering description step by step as he is taken to the room where the suits are, each baring the name of its owner, and is handed a suit with no name Preston takes this as a bad sign. While the title refers to the highest level, Bio Safety Level 4 (BL-4), of biosecurity in the laboratory, the articles run the gamut of subjects from the number Π, to the search for the origin of Ebola, to a unique type of cannibal. Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and The Wild Trees, returns with Panic in Level 4, featuring six of his articles which have appeared over the recent years, in some form, in the New Yorker.

Richard preston panic in level 4