Quote:
Originally posted by JCF
What was the name of that old movie where everyone in some town died , their blood dried up - something to do with some kind of alien virus. Everyoneexcept for the town drunk and a kid (?). ?
Turns out what they had in common and the reason they survived was Sterno - they were drinking it.
Hope I didn't ruin the ending for anyone.
John
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The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton, about a team of scientists investigating a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin which causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood.
"We'll have the answer to this disease," said one scientist, "when we know why a sixty-two-year-old Sterno drinker with a bleeding ulcer is like a perfectly healthy two-month-old baby."
Turns out the thing the had in common was their blood Ph balance was off. The drunk's Sterno drinking, and habit of taking huge amounts of aspirin for his painful ulcer, acidified his blood beyond the range in which Andromeda could reproduce. The baby, constantly crying, blew off so much carbon dioxide from his blood that he became alkalotic: his blood was too alkaline.