The Vanishing Earth

The Vanishing Earth is a scientific mystery that involves the microscopic world that we live in. Roger Starling, an established microbiologist, discovers a strange phenomenon in the tropical farms on an island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Some unknown agent that is destroying the organic matter that holds the soils together is ravaging fields – washing them away and destroying crops. Unbeknownst to Professor Starling, a similar phenomenon is occurring in the Dominican Republic and southern Florida. A former colleague of Starling and someone he had an affair with years before, Dr. Lauren Hayes, has become involved with the events in the Dominican Republic and Florida. She discovers that Starling is working on the same mysterious phenomenon and they come together at one of America’s most prestigious research laboratories to solve the problem using state-of-the art DNA forensic techniques. They discover the identity of the soil-eating agent and this leads them to the shocking source of this pestilence and the reasons why it spread so widely. They are working against time as the disaster expands worldwide and the threat is only halted in the end by the combined efforts of international agencies and the armed forces of the United States. The book provides an inside glimpse at the workings of major research universities and government laboratories and details some of the sophisticated molecular techniques being used today.