The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

Contact Your Elected Officials

The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a gripping account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.

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. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. 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 didnโ€™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 bookโ€™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 โ€‹a curiosity โ€‹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? Hmmmโ€ฆShould 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. Her story is a thrilling detective tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of March 2021: Isaacson is famous for writing Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci, so a title like The Code Breaker might imply a lesser book about a lesser character. But 2020 Nobel winner Jennifer Doudna, who developed the gene editing technology CRISPR, is a giant in her own right. CRISPR could open some of the greatest opportunities, and most troubling quandaries, of this centuryโ€”and this book delivers. โ€”Chris Schluep, Amazon Book Review

Review

โ€œThis yearโ€™s prize is about rewriting the code of life. These genetic scissors have taken the life sciences into a new epoch.โ€ โ€“ Announcement of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

“Isaacsonโ€™s vivid account is a page-turning detective story and an indelible portrait of a revolutionary thinker who, as an adolescent in Hawaiโ€™i, was told that girls donโ€™t do science. Nevertheless, she persisted.” โ€” Oprah Magazine.com

The Code Breaker marks the confluence of perfect writer, perfect subject and perfect timing. The result is almost certainly the most important book of the year.โ€ โ€“ Minneapolis Star Tribune

โ€œIsaacson captures the scientific process well, including the role of chance. The hard graft at the bench, the flashes of inspiration, the importance of conferences as cauldrons of creativity, the rivalry, sometimes friendly, sometimes less so, and the sense of common purpose are all conveyed in his narrative. The Code Breaker describes a dance to the music of time with these things as its steps, which began with Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel and shows no sign of ending.โ€ โ€“ The Economist

โ€œIsaacson lays everything out with his usual lucid prose; itโ€™s brisk and compelling and even funny throughout. Youโ€™ll walk away with a deeper understanding of both the science itself and how science gets done โ€” including plenty of mischief.โ€ โ€“ The Washington Post

“This story was always guaranteed to be a page-turner in [Isaacson’s] hands.” โ€“ The Guardian

The Code Breaker unfolds as an enthralling detective story, crackling with ambition and feuds, laboratories and conferences, Nobel laureates and self-taught mavericks. The book probes our common humanity without ever dumbing down the science, a testament to Isaacsonโ€™s own genius on the page.” โ€” O Magazine

“Walter Isaacson is our Renaissance biographer, a writer of unusual range and depth who has plumbed lives of genius to illuminate fundamental truths about human nature. From Leonardo to Steve Jobs, from Benjamin Franklin to Albert Einstein, Isaacson has given us an unparalleled canon of work that chronicles how we have come to live the way we do. Now, in a magnificent, compelling, and wholly original book, he turns his attention to the next frontier: that of gene editing and the role science may play in reshaping the nature of life itself. This is an urgent, sober, accessible, and altogether brilliant achievement.” โ€”Jon Meacham

“When a great biographer combines his own fascination with science and a superb narrative style, the result is magic. This important and powerful work, written in the tradition of The Double Helix, allows us not only to follow the story of a brilliant and inspired scientist as she engages in a fierce competitive race, but to experience for ourselves the wonders of nature and the joys of discovery.” โ€”Doris Kearns Goodwin

โ€œHeโ€™s done it again. The Code Breaker is another Walter Isaacson must-read. This time he has a heroine who will be for the ages; a worldwide cast of remarkable, fiercely competitive scientists; and a string of discoveries that will change our lives far more than the iPhone did. The tale is gripping. The implications mind-blowing.โ€ โ€“ Atul Gawande

“An extraordinary book that delves into one of the most path-breaking biological technologies of our times and the creators who helped birth it. This brilliant book is absolutely necessary reading for our era.”  โ€” Siddhartha Mukherjee

โ€œNow more than ever we should appreciate the beauty of nature and the importance of scientific research; This book and Jennifer Doudnaโ€™s career show how thrilling it can be to understand how life works.โ€ โ€”Sue Desmond-Hellmann

โ€œAn extraordinarily detailed and revealing account of scientific progress and competition that grants readers behind-the-scenes access to the scientific process, which the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us remains opaque to the wider public. It also provides lessons in science communication that go beyond the story itself.โ€ โ€“ Science Magazine

โ€œAn indispensable guide to the braveโ€ฆ new world we have entered.” โ€“ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“A vital book about the next big thing in scienceโ€”and yet another top-notch biography from Isaacson.” โ€” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In Isaacson’s splendid saga of how big science really operates, curiosity and creativity, discovery and innovation, obsession and strong personalities, competitiveness and collaboration, and the beauty of nature all stand out.” โ€” Booklist (starred review)

“Isaacson depicts science at its most exhilarating in this lively biography of Jennifer Doudna, the winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in medicine for her work on the CRISPR system of gene editing…The result is a gripping account of a great scientific advancement and of the dedicated scientists who realized it.” โ€” Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

“Isaacson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of best sellers Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs, offers a startling, insightful look at this lifesaving, hugely significant scientific advancement and the brilliant Doudna, who wrestles with the serious moral questions that accompany her creation. Should this technology be offered to parents to tailor-make their babies into athletes or Einsteins? Who gets altered and saved and why?โ€ โ€” AARP

“Mr. Isaacson is a great storyteller and a national treasure โ€” like Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and of course his latest subject, Jennifer Doudna.โ€ โ€” The East Hampton Star

“The journalist who told the life stories of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs is back with a timely biography of Jennifer Doudna, PhD, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Itโ€™s a fast-paced account of her life as a pathbreaking scientist on CRISPR โ€” and how gene editing could alter all life as we know it.” โ€” Medium

“This challenging, fascinating story examines Doudna’s background and excavates the moral quandaries she grapples with as her creation opens up more and more avenues for scientific advancement.” โ€” Elle

“It is a gripping tale, showing how our new ability to hack evolution will soon start throwing us curveballs.” โ€” New Scientist

โ€œ[A] fascinating story… [Isaacsonโ€™s] unique skill as a master storyteller of scientific development over the centuries has educated not only his fellow Baby Boomers, but also succeeding generations, helping people of all ages and backgrounds travel down the long and winding road toward understanding how life works.โ€ โ€“ Washington Independent Review of Books

“[A] marvelous biography… With his dynamic and formidable style, Isaacson explains the long scientific journey that led to this toolโ€™s discovery and the exciting developments that have followed….Isaacson is truly an immersive tour guide, combining the energy of a TED Talk with the intimacy of a series of fireside chats….For readers seeking to understand the many twists, turns and nuances of the biotechnology revolution, thereโ€™s no better place to turn than The Code Breaker.”โ€“ BookPage

โ€œ Isaacson expertly plumbs the moral ambiguity surrounding this new technology. โ€โ€“Scientific American

About the Author

Walter Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He is the author of Leonardo da VinciThe Innovators; Steve JobsEinstein: His Life and UniverseBenjamin Franklin: An American Life;and Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. Visit him at Isaacson.Tulane.edu.

Book Knowledge
Book Knowledgehttps://www.thethinkingconservative.com/previews/books-magazines/
Book Knowledge shares books, magazines and other sources that help us grow in our knowledge of conservatism and help us make a difference in our country.

Now Lawyers Are Looking for the Epstein List, Too!

So it turns out that when FBI Director Kash...

Remember Epsteinโ€™s โ€œLittle Black Booksโ€?

Image of Bill Clinton getting a massage from Jeffrey...

On the Major Leagueโ€™s periphery: A major trip through the minors

For Nick Dunn, the trek through the minors is a trifecta of physical, mental, and organizational hurdles filled with politics, roster volatility, and injuries.

Private Citizens are Now Looking into Epstein Client List

Most Americans have never felt so betrayed and confused by a president and his admin as they are by the Trump admin over the Epstein client list issue.

Peace In Ukraine Wonโ€™t End The Westโ€™s Hybrid War On Russia

The Westโ€™s Hybrid War on Russia to follow peace in Ukraine is inevitable due to neoconservatives and liberal-globalists in its decision-making ecosystem.

DOJ Shuts Down Investigation on T-Mobile-UScellular Merger

DOJ no longer opposes the merger of T-Mobile and UScellular and has closed its investigation into the matter, the department said in a July 10 statement.

Trump Visits Central Texas, Epicenter of Catastrophic Flood That Killed More Than 120

President Trump landed in Central Texas for first-hand look at damage from devastating flood claiming the lives of more than 120 people statewide.

Federal Judge Blocks Trumpโ€™s Birthright Citizenship Order After Supreme Court Ruling

Judge barred Trump admin from enforcing EO limiting birthright citizenship, after Supreme Court restricted judges from issuing nationwide injunctions.

Trump Says US Has Struck Deal With NATO to Supply Weapons to Ukraine

President Donald Trump said on July 10 that he has struck a new deal with NATO under which the United States will supply weapons to Ukraine

RFK Jr. Bans Illegal Immigrants From Government-Funded Programs

HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is rescinding a 1998 interpretation of a law that allowed illegal immigrants to access certain government-funded programs.

Rubio Set to Visit Malaysia for ASEAN Meetings Amid Tariff Tensions

A delegation including U.S. Sec. of State Marco Rubio will travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for series of high-profile meetings between July 11 and 12.

US Will Collect More Than $300 Billion in Tariff Revenues This Year, Treasury Secretary Says

U.S. is on track to potentially raise โ€œwell over $300 billionโ€ in tariff income by end of the year, Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said during WH Cabinet meeting.
spot_img

Related Articles