The Aggressor Gene

Dr. Susan Miller is a brilliant, young, attractive marine biologist on a fast track career pathway at Memorial University of Newfoundland, doing behavioral studies on squid and octopuses, molluscan species noted for their high intelligence. Her studies are interrupted when the director oof NOAA's Office of Research and Ocean Exploration requests her help aboard the oceanic research vessel, Oceans Explorer in the western Pacific Ocean to investigate the disappearance of some marine research divers from the ship. She is accompanied by her molecular biology post-doctoral trainee, Dr. Masami Matsumoto from Japan. It is suspected that one or more giant squid, usually a quiet, clandestine species, are responsible for these and other deaths in the region. Scientists aboard the research vessel are also investigating the increased submarine seismic activity occurring in the western Pacific. These dilemmas require the two marine biologists to travel around the globe, and to examine the molecular genetics to solve this problem and to discover its amazing causation.

The author, Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, has been a professor of biomedical sciences in both medical and veterinary faculties, and has as well worked extensively in marine biology, particularly in marine mamma; research. He has published over 200 papers and chapters and written or edited many books, including recently, Molecular and Cell Biology of Marine Mammals. He has worked and lied with his family in several of the countries described in this book. He was also early employed as a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and more recently was an investigator associated with an amphibian experiment on board the International Space Shuttle, SYS 65. He has degrees from Duke University, Southern Illinois University and Harvard University. He lives in Virginia with his wife, dogs, cat and horses. This is his first novel.