The Andromeda Strain is a 1969 novel by American writer Michael Crichton, his first novel under his own name and his sixth novel overall. It documents the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in Arizona and the team of scientists investigating it. The book is presented as a report from a secret government project involving scientists, and features text-based computer imagery that illustrates the results of various tests on the organism. The Andromeda Strain appeared in The New York Times Best Seller list, establishing Michael Crichton as a genre writer, and as an early example of the techno-thriller genre.