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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.
Reviews
"that prospective parents could insert into their offspring's genomes ..."
"She is not a narcissist or an eccentric."
"The result is a gripping account of a great scientific advancement and of the dedicated scientists who realized it."
"For the uninitiated — those folks who cannot tell their DNAs from RNAs — understanding this new frontier in science can be a bit daunting ..."
"Some scientific concepts (nuclear fission, evolution) are easy to grasp but not CRISPR."
"Author Walter Isaacson is one of the nation's premier biographers ..."
"Isaacson remains a consummate portraitist...He understands the tensions that drive discovery and how flawed brilliant people can be."
"As in his past volumes, Isaacson displays his gift for making complex material enjoyable to read ..."
"Writing gracefully and with authority, Isaacson frames Doudna's life story with that of James Watson, who used model-building and photographs to propose the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953 ..."
"You'll walk away with a deeper understanding of both the science itself and how science gets done—including plenty of mischief ..."
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