human-fallibility

Badri's illness and possible errors in coordinate recalculations underscore human vulnerability and error even in advanced scientific endeavors.

1 chapter across 1 book

Doomsday Book (1992)Connie Willis

1348. He could not seem to take this in. He had been worried about Kivrin catching the Indian flu, he had been worried about there being too much slippage, and all the time she was in 1348. The plague had hit Oxford in 1348. At Christmastime.

In this chapter, Dunworthy realizes that Kivrin has been sent to the year 1348, right in the midst of the Black Death plague in Oxford, rather than the intended earlier period. The team grapples with the consequences of this error, the severity of the plague, and the urgency to retrieve Kivrin despite institutional obstacles, including quarantine and locked facilities. Dunworthy takes charge, overriding Gilchrist's authority to gain access to the laboratory and attempt a rescue, while reflecting on the devastating impact of the plague on medieval Europe.