Guest Post: Quarantine!

The Daily Bruin

UCLA’s student newspaper since 1919

Mayor announces quarantine; National Guard will enforce Compiled from online sources by Bruin staff August 31

A total quarantine has been imposed on the greater Los Angeles area to prevent spread of the petroplague.  In addition, a nighttime curfew will also be in effect starting at 10 PM.  It is unclear how the curfew will be enforced on the thousands of Angelenos currently fleeing the city on foot. UCLA campus remains closed except for essential functions.  There have been rumors of activity in the Bioenergy Institute, which has been implicated as the source of the petroplague.  Fire alarms were reported in the building but with all civil services paralyzed, firefighters were unable to respond.

UCLA graduate student Christina Gonzalez wanted to use biotechnology to free America from its dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Instead, an act of eco-terrorism unleashes her genetically-modified bacteria into the fuel supply of Los Angeles, making petroleum useless. With the city paralyzed and slipping toward anarchy, Christina must find a way to rein in the microscopic monster she created. But not everyone wants to cure the petroplague—and some will do whatever it takes to spread it. From the La Brea Tar Pits to university laboratories to the wilds of the Angeles National Forest, Christina and her cousin River struggle against enemies seen and unseen to stop the infection before it’s too late.

Amy Rogers, M.D., Ph.D., began her writing career in elementary school by (unsuccessfully) submitting anecdotes to Reader’s Digest in hopes of earning twenty-five bucks. By junior high her real passion was science, especially microbiology. In the bedroom of her home in rural southern Minnesota, she kept Petri dishes of bacteria in an egg incubator and won purple ribbons in science fairs. That passion led her to study biochemistry at Harvard, and ultimately to earn a doctorate in immunology. Wee beasties animated her years of teaching microbiology at the university level. More recently, micro-critters inspired her to write novels and short stories that highlight their amazing powers.

Amy writes thrilling science-themed novels that pose frightening what if? questions. Compelling characters and fictionalized science—not science fiction—make Dr. Rogers’ books page-turners that open the reader’s eyes to threats they never imagined before.

Amy loves dim sum, Ted Drewes, redwood forests, Minnesota lakes, Hawaiian beaches, and cats. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two exceptional children who believe she has an unreasonable tolerance for mysterious things growing in her refrigerator.