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The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
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About This Book
When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn't become scientists, she decided she would. Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book's author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his co-discovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code. Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression? Hmmm…Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or muscles or IQ of their kids? After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020.
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Reviews
"The result is a gripping account of a great scientific advancement and of the dedicated scientists who realized it."
"But, ultimately, it helps create an understanding that these breakthroughs are not created in a bubble, it requires a patchwork of experiments and expertise over many years."
"he's demonstrated an uncanny ability to do exhaustive research, organize it all and present it lucidly, separating wheat from chaff ..."
"With his dynamic and formidable style, Isaacson explains the long scientific journey that led to this tool's discovery and the exciting developments that have followed ..."
"in addition to providing a navigable history of genetic technology, offers a compelling introduction to the complex moral and sociological questions that stem from these advances ..."
"A vital book about the next big thing in science—and yet another top-notch biography from Isaacson."
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