Panic in Level 4

Acknowledgments

The principal thanks in this book must be given to the people who are portrayed in it. They often patiently and generously submittted to the sort of tedious questioning that I gave Nancy Jaax when I examined her hands. I’m especially grateful to: Nancy Jaax; “Jeremy” “Martha” Gregory and Christine Chudnovsky; David Chudnovsky and Nicole Lannegrace; the late Malka Benjaminovna Chudnovsky; the late Herbert Robbins; Richard Askey; William T. Close; Will Blozan; Heidi Blozan; Rusty Rhea; Kristine Johnson; Tom Remaley; Tim Tigner; Lee Frelich; Carolyn Mahan; Richard Evans; James Åkerson; Christopher Asaro; Stephen C. Sillett; D. Scott Sillett; Robert Van Pelt; J. Craig Venter; Claire Fraser; Hamilton O. Smith; Marshall R. Peterson; James D. Watson; Eric S. Lander; Norton Zinder; Francis Collins; Gene Meyers; Jeffrey and Tondra Lynford; Morton H. Meyerson; Tom Morgan; Peter Barnet; Barbara Bridgers; Scott Geffert; Joseph Coscia, Jr.; Oi-Cheong Lee; Timothy Husband; William L. Nyhan; Michael Lesch; Nancy Esterly; James Elrod; James Elrod’s sister; the late and beloved Jim Murphy; all the members of the Murphy family I met, who gave so generously of their time and thought; Andy Pereira; Steve Glenn; Tracye Overby; Michael Roth; Christopher Reeves; Brad Alerich; H. A. Jinnah; Takaomi Taira; Philippe Coubes.

Many thanks to Tim Bartlett, my editor at Random House, who is the overall editor of this book. Many thanks also to Tina Bennett and Lynn Nesbit at Janklow & Nesbit Associates. At The New Yorker, past and present, I’m grateful to the following people for their contributions to various parts of this book: Robert Gottlieb, Tina Brown, David Remnick, John Bennet, Sharon DeLano, Dorothy Wickenden, Amy Davidson, Peter Canby, Martin Baron, Ann Goldstein, Elisabeth Biondi, Elizabeth Culbert, and the late Miss Eleanor Gould (Eleanor Packard); while the following checkers worked on certain parts: Hal Espen (“The Mountains of Pi”); Christopher Jennings and Michael Peed (“A Death in the Forest”); Bill Vourvoulias and Daniel Hurewitz (“The Search for Ebola”); Andy Young (“The Human Kabbalah”); Marina Harss (“The Lost Unicorn”); and Lila Byock and Jessica Rosenberg (“The Self-Cannibals”). Any errors of fact in this book are my responsibility, though where I got things right, very often a checker was involved.

My wife, Michelle, and our children, Marguerite, Laura, and Oliver, with their endless curiosity and openness to new things, inspired this book. They were also present for some of the interviews in “The Lost Unicorn,” and they have had their own friendship with the Chudnovsky family and asked their own questions. Michelle, who worked as a checker at The New Yorker, inspired me in fact-checking. She continues to inspire me in far greater ways than that.