The Code Breaker

Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

Paperback, 560 pages

Published March 1, 2022 by Simon & Schuster.

ISBN:
978-1-9821-1586-9
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4 stars (1 review)

A scientific biography of Jennifer Doudna, a founder and co-developer of the CRISPR gene-editing mechanism, and an examination of what happened after CRISPR hit the marketplace.

8 editions

reviewed The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson

A view into the work and lives of gene editing researchers

4 stars

This is an area of research with huge potential impacts that I had little understanding of. The basic explanations are pretty good, though I still have plenty of questions. Why are CRISPR RNA sequences palindromic? Etc. Mostly this is the stories of the people, though. Somehow I hadn't heard that there are genetically modified humans walking the earth, and how that happened is pretty interesting. Also these researchers managed to agree on some guard rails to safeguard our species, which has parallels with what is happening with artificial intelligence now.