Michael Crichton's 'Next' Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gene patents

The central theme of this novel is gene patents. The main plot in the novel is about Frank Burnet, a cancer patient from whom the UCLA harvests cancer fighting cytokine cells. UCLA sells the cells to BioGen. When Burnet takes the case to court, the ruling goes in favour of Biogen, the court even goes on to state that Burnet's cells belong to Biogen. This later leads to a ridiculous situation when Biogen claims that the cells in Burnet's daughter and grandson also belong to Biogen and they attempt to forcibly extract it.

After 'Jurassic Park' and 'Lost World', Crichton once again turns to genetics in this novel. In this novel Crichton presents scientific facts in the form of fiction. In fact, the first page of the novel states that "the novel is fiction except for the parts that aren't". There are number of snippets in the book about various researches on genetics.

Answer: Rick Diehl

Richard 'Rick' Diehl was the CEO of BioGen. He had started the company using his wife Karen's funds. Short of funds for trials, he approaches the venture capitalist Jack Watson. But Rick lands in a soup as Watson wants to throw Diehl out and take over his company. Dr. Bellarmino is the head of genetics at the NIH, who is good at stealing research ideas from others. Vasco Borden is a bounty hunter who is used by Biogen to grab Burnet's daughter and grandson.

Answer: Maturity gene

Biogen researcher Josh Winkler was working on a new gene that was causing early maturity in rats. His studies led him to believe that this gene could help in curing addictions in human beings and make them mentally more mature. The novelty gene is Henry Kendal's idea which is stolen by Dr. Bellarmino.

The blonde gene is a recurring them in the novel, this is based on a fictitious study which says that blondes are becoming extinct.

Answer: A talking parrot

Gerard is a two year old transgenic grey parrot that could talk. Apart from talking, Gerard could also solve math problems and recite movie lines. Gerard was injected with human transgenes by Tomizu and Gail Bond at the Institut National in Paris. 'Next' also features an orangutan in Sumatra that could speak (mostly swear words!).

A talking chimpanzee is also featured in the novel. The gorilla that knows sign language is Amy, who is featured in Crichton's 'Congo'.

Answer: Because the chimp was his son

Henry Kendall was doing a research on autism and for his studies had inserted his own genes into a monkey embryo, including the genes for speech. Henry had hoped that the fetus would die and he could use the dead fetus for his experiments. But the fetus survived and grew into a 'humanzee' - a transgenic chimpanzee. NIH plans to terminate the chimpanzee named Dave.

Henry decides to save Dave by bringing him back home. He gets the support of his wife Lynn and decides to bring up Dave at home.

Answer: For organ theft

Dr. Marty Roberts, who was the chief pathologist at the Long Beach Memorial Hospital had an assistant Raza who was involved in organ theft and Roberts was sharing in the loot. Raza had stolen the bones of a patient Weller, which was discovered. Raza later turned the tables on Robert accusing him of engineering the theft.

Answer: He dies in captivity

The talking orangutan is captured by a wildlife photographer named Gorevitch. Unfortunately he uses too much of tranquilizer and has to resuscitate the orangutan by mouth to mouth resuscitation, resulting in the orangutan getting a cold. After the orangutan dies, a surgeon does a post-mortem which reveals that it has a vocal chord like human but is not a mutant and is just an ape.

Answer: No

Burnet's original cells are contaminated by Brad (the security guard who was fired by Rick Diehl). The backup is also stolen mysteriously. Burnet goes into hiding and Biogen uses a bounty hunter to recover the cells from Burnet's grandson Jamie. But Burnet's daughter Alex goes into hiding and after a chase, the bounty hunter Vasco loses his ear (bitten off by Dave).

In the end, the court rules in favour of Burnet.

Answer: He is named as the Scientist of the year

After the talking chimp is discovered, Henry Kendall testifies before Congress. He is named as the scientist of the year by the Society of Libertarian Biology. Kendall becomes a celebrity travelling to universities to deliver lectures on transgenics.

His wife Lynn ran the Transgenic Times website which chronicled the lives of the talking chimpanzee Dave, the talking parrot Gerard and the rest of the Kendall family.

Answer: He dies of cancer

Jack Watson was behind the conspiracy to ruin Diehl. He successfully manages to take over BioGen and with the help of Burnet works out a deal with Duke University to harvest Burnet's cytokine cells. Watson is later found to be afflicted with a rare kind of cancer which has no cure, because ironically, the gene required for the cure had been patented by a commercial organisation. Watson dies in China.
Dr. Bellarmino is conducting a research on the novelty gene in an amusement park and asks Brad to volunteer for the test. A panicky Brad mistakes Bellarmino's team for officer and shoots Bellarmino dead.

The novel end with an author's note where Crichton sums up his research with the following appeals:
1. Stop gene patenting
2. Establish clear guidelines for use of human tissues
3. Pass law to ensure that data about gene testing is made public
4. Avoid bans on research
5. Rescind the Bayh-Dole act which permits university researchers to sell their discoveries for profits.