Every time an English professor assigns a novel, poem, or play for a class to analyze, he or she is using the case study method. Why shouldn't scientists do the same? They don't always have to write their own material. After all, there are some pretty good writers out there, and some of them actually slip a lot of science into the nooks and crannies of their plots. Indeed, in the case of Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, and more recently State of Fear, science is front and center--with graphs and footnotes to actual scientific papers no less. This article considers the novel as a basis for a case study. This author teaches an honors seminar called Scientific Inquiry: Case Studies in Science. His main objective is to give them a better idea of how science is really accomplished. That's easier said than done. (Most students--and indeed, most folks--don't have a clue as to the really messy nature of science and the reasons that we can't always give simple answers to questions. Case studies can show how scientists act on a day-to-day basis, and that's what he is after in this course. On the first day of class, he had each student list the top 10 problems in the world. Predictably, on everyone's list was global warming. That's where Crichton's new book, State of Fear, comes in. Global warming is the theme that drives the book. Before students read the book, they needed in-depth background in the subject. The groups had two weeks to research the topic and write a 20-page paper. One volunteer in each group was asked to write the paper (this person would have reduced duties in the collection of data). After the reports were turned in, graded, and returned, each student was asked to write two different types of case studies on their portion of the case. Over the next couple of weeks, students were asked to read Chrichton's State of Fear, and write a critique of the book which would be discussed in class. The second stage of the plan was to get to the science. The way it was approached was to turn to each group that specialized in a topic and ask them to comment on the accuracy of the data presented in the novel itself and in the author's personal remarks at the end. Interestingly, the students largely supported Crichton's assessment of the global warming argument (i.e., that there is considerable hype but little concern for the immediate future). As they worked their way through the graphs, students noted that the evidence supported the view that small changes in the gas composition of the atmosphere were occurring and that global temperature was rising slightly. Yet there was really no way to assess whether or not this is due to human activities or normal climate variations. Moreover, the groups looking at the sea level and ice cap data, in which there are extreme difficulties in measurement, simply threw their hands up and said the data were inconclusive. And most of them sided with critics of modeling because of the questionable accuracy of forecasting years into the future.