We sent special Killer Bugs correspondent Roger van Oosten to Town Hall last night to catch Richard "Hot Zone" Preston's talk. Post-decontamination, here is his report.

Richard Preston, the award-winning author of The Hot Zone and Demon in the Freezer, had the Town Hall audience on his side with his very first words: “It’s freezing here! This is crazy!”

Preston is on the lecture circuit pumping his new book Panic in Level 4, a collection of very strange science stories, including a gruesome one about self-cannibalization, that were first published in The New Yorker. A large and appreciative crowd braved the blustery cold to hear him discuss the craft of writing, relay some interesting stories, and answer questions.

He’s an engaging and knowledgeable speaker. He spent a long time talking about the process of writing, the process he takes to find a story and the process of interviewing a subject; at one point he nimbly jumped into a mock interview playing both parts.

His most interesting story involved his trip into the Level 4 hot zone laboratory at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland. Known as a writer who loves to physically follow in the footsteps of his subjects, Preston donned a pressurized spacesuit and entered the Level 4 lab where much of The Hot Zone takes place.

Once inside, he found out that the Army was identifying a previously unknown viral agent. Just then his spacesuit ripped open and depressurized--his very own “Ebola moment.”

The audience featured a large number of middle and high school science teachers who use Preston’s books in class; he enjoyed that, but noted he had failed his own science classes in school, ruining his chance to be a scientist. Now he just writes about science geeks, and odd ones at that. A pair of brothers described in the new book built a supercomputer in their New York flat using chains of modified home computers. They are exploring pi.

An audience member asked if he was related to Douglas Preston, the writer (with Lincoln Child) of many thrillers.

“He’s my brother. We’re very close. We’ve been talking about writing a memoir together,” said Preston. Then, the man who has nearly died climbing trees for a story, entered Kitum Cave in Africa looking for the home of Marburg, and came face to face with anthrax, added, “We had a strange childhood.”