# Quote — Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain

> Houston: Scoop, Houston Projection Group has confirmed orbital instability and decay ratios are now being passed by the data trunk to your station.
>
> Scoop: How do they look, Houston?
>
> Houston: Bad.
>
> Scoop: Not understood. Please repeat.
>
> Houston: Bad: B as in broken, A as in awful, D as in dropping.

- Author: [Michael Crichton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton.md)
- Book: [The Andromeda Strain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/the-andromeda-strain.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/the-andromeda-strain/houston-scoop-houston

## More from this book

> For years it was stated that men had forty-eight chromosomes in their cells; there were pictures to prove it, and any number of careful studies. In 1953, a group of American researchers announced to the world that the human chromosome number was forty-six. Once more, there were pictures to prove it, and studies to confirm it. But these researchers also went back to reexamine the old pictures, and the old studies — and found only forty-six chromosomes, not forty-eight.
>
> Leavitt's Rule of 48 said simply, "All Scientists Are Blind."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/the-andromeda-strain/for-years-it-was.md)

> On the cover of the file was stenciled WILDFIRE, and underneath, an ominous note:
>
> THIS FILE IS CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET.
>
> Examination by unauthorized access is a criminal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment up to 20 years and $20,000.
>
> When Leavitt gave him the file, Hall had read the note and whistled.
>
> "Don't you believe it," Leavitt said.
>
> "Just a scare?"
>
> "Scare, hell," Leavitt said. "If the wrong man reads this file, he just disappears."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/the-andromeda-strain/on-the-cover.md)

> He [Stone] often argued that human intelligence was more trouble than it was worth. It was more destructive than creative, more confusing than revealing, more discouraging than satisfying, more spiteful than charitable.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/the-andromeda-strain/he-stone-often.md)