But the New Yorker writer spends much of his time investigating some of the other more interesting stories of our world.

"Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science" (Random House: $26) is based on Preston's New Yorker offerings, but the book takes them to new levels of interest and most readers will find it hard to put down.

Preston introduces us to Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, a medical condition caused "by the alteration of a single letter of a person's DNA code. If one letter of the human DNA is altered in a certain place in the code, the person who is born with the tiny error has a dramatic change of behavior — a lifelong, irresistible compulsion to attack himself, chewing off . . . '' his fingers.

Preston also writes about his experience climbing the redwood trees of California: "In order to climb a redwood, you put on a harness and ascend hundreds of feet up a rope into the redwood canopy. It's like scuba diving, except that you go into the air."

He tells us about Craig Venter, who helped decode human DNA and became a paper billionaire in the stock market as a result — that is until the DNA bubble burst and investors figured out there is no quick trip to DNA riches. What really happened is that the Human Genome Project, which also decoded DNA, announced it was going to make its information available for free and Celera, Venter's company, saw its value drop.

"Then it went into a screaming nosedive. It dropped fifty-seven dollars in a matter of hours, lurching downward. On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, the trades were holding fistfuls of sell slips for Celera and nobody wanted to buy the stock. The other genomic stocks crashed in sympathy with Celera. This, in turn, dragged down the NASDAQ, which that day suffered the second-largest point loss in its history."

Venter ended up getting fired from his own company and had to sell his stock at the bottom of the market, explaining that he made a million dollars the hard way, by starting with a billion and working down.

Preston also writes about being in a "Level 4" virus lab, the most dangerous known to man, and experiencing a tear in his suit. It was panic time (hence the title), though he suffered no ill effects.

All in all, this is a great read. If you're flying overseas, make sure you take the book along; it will make the trip go faster by far.