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The Code Breaker
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race | Walter Isaacson
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 didnt 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 books 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? HmmmShould 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.
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kspenmoll
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Too many #powerful women to count.
A few: Eleanor Roosevelt, Kamala Harris,Jennifer Doudna,various women living in the Barbizon Hotel in NYC, author Barbara Pym,& Paula Huntley who started a bookclub in Kosovo after the war in late 1990s.

MemoirsForMe 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 7mo
52 likes1 comment
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fredthemoose
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Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really enjoyed most of this book about the discoveries and scientists behind CRISPR gene editing technology. The author uses Dr. Doudna as a way into the story but it really wasn‘t about her. It got bogged down a bit in repeating the ethical arguments for and against using the technology and in what cases it‘s appropriate, but overall it was really interesting.

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kspenmoll
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#newyearnewbooks #artist #day13 #womeninscience #day14
My husband read The Code Breaker & loved it. Of course for me it‘s a #TBR
The graphic novel of Hilma of Klint is wonderful!

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Perfect 👍🏻 11mo
47 likes1 comment
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Sungirl79
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Pickpick

This was a great book and very interesting. It was also very scary what can be done with gene editing. There are diseases that can be cured but a person can also create a designer baby. I am not sure how I feel about creating a designer baby and what are the repercussions of doing so? Very interesting book! We shall see what the future holds for gene editing.

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Hooked_on_books
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Mehso-so

I expected to love this and, well, I didn‘t. Don‘t get me wrong, Dr Doudna is amazing and has had an extraordinary career with fabulous contributions to humanity, but this book is poorly organized and rather disjointed. I appreciate that Isaacson made a point of showing that scientific discoveries build on previous work, meaning many people should be lauded, but this book needed some serious editing.

Amiable I‘ve found that with his books. Some of them have been great while others are oddly disorganized. It‘s rather inconsistent. 2y
Hooked_on_books @Amiable That‘s really interesting. I wonder if some of that is editors not wanting to push too much on a well-known author. Which would be disappointing, since we can all be better. I‘ve never read him before, but this book makes me not so interested in his books. 2y
Amiable @Hooked_on_books His book about Steve Jobs was fantastic—I couldn‘t put it down. Whereas his book about Ben Franklin …well, I could barely force myself to pick it up. 😬 2y
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Bamazin
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Bookstore shelfie

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Esdras8887
Pickpick

Perhaps one of the best books I‘ve ever read, it is certainly one of the most interesting and well written biographies I‘ve ever read. Combines all the history and science that lead up to Dr. Doudna‘s discoveries and current contributions to CRISPR technology, as well as emphasizing all the other major players.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Pickpick

This was very good. It helps to have some knowledge of biology and biotech. It is a dense book, with many topics from biology, philosophy, to inter-relationships it was interesting to see how scientist complete and work together. Really fascinating is how Isaacson started research on something so fundamental to SARS to then end up in a pandemic of an offshoot of the virus. What great timing.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Saturday afternoon delight.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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#weekendreading @andrew65
Every heart is a doorway is due back at the library, so need to crack it and speed through it, luckily it is super short
Code Breaker & Shadow of Empress both impressive books I have about 200 pages of each to get through so hoping to finish both this weekend.
My bedside table book is The Paris Apartment and I need to read the first chapter of 1619 Project for #1619groupread the discussion there has been wonderful

Andrew65 Some great choices. 3y
16 likes1 comment
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Well-ReadNeck
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Mehso-so

Love the focus on a female scientist. But, this book (necessarily) gets into the weeds in science and that cuts into the readability for me.

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Erynecki
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Pickpick

I have a minimalistic understanding of biology, DNA, gene editing, and radical discoveries and inventions in the life sciences…but I loved this book. The race to understand and uncover the science, the collaboration, the moral questions, the rivalries, the triumphs, the looking forward and reflection on the past…those were the stories I loved. I‘m a sucker for well told human interest stories.

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Bethanyroe
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Mehso-so

This isn‘t a narrative-style biography, it‘s more of a factual, reporter‘s style, with lots of snippets throughout of new added characters and events. I did enjoy the in-depth look at science and how viruses and vaccines work. And it‘s fascinating to learn about how scientists both contribute and compete with one another. An amazing book, I just have a personal preference of narrative in-depth characterization in bios.

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GerardtheBookworm
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Pickpick

A dense, detailed read focusing on 2020 Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and chemist Emmanuelle Charpentier and their work on uncovering the coded enzymes of DNA that contributed to the formation of CRISPR and assisted in a vaccine to combat COVID-19. The book also looks at the all the scientists involved in the process including the Watson-Crick controversial double helix study. For science buffs.

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Sungirl79
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Started this book and so far I‘m loving it!! I am a huge fan of science!! 🧬 🧪

hannah-leeloo Takes me back to my uni days 3y
Sungirl79 @hannah-leeloo Yes, definitely 😊 3y
21 likes2 comments
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RamsFan1963
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Pickpick

I'm not sure how to review this. I found Jennifer Doudna to be a somewhat bland personality, but the history of CRISPR and gene editing was fascinating. So many people were involved in its creation and advancement, most more colorful than Doudna. I can't help thinking about climate change while listening to this book. Might we one day be forced to alter humans to survive a harsher future, create a mankind more tolerant ⬇️⬇️ Cont. in comments

RamsFan1963 to extreme temperatures, humans who can survive on less water or food? It could be a bright new future or a nightmare like Huxley's Brave New World. 5 💉💉💉💉💉 4y
Suet624 It all makes me nervous. 4y
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Booksnchill
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Pickpick

5⭐️ As I expect from author Walter Isaacson, this is full of science, even handed portrayals yet what presents as honest assessments of the amazing breakthrough work in Gene editing. Read this and inform yourself about the pandemic, the science behind the vaccines and the implications for our future. Isaacson focuses on Jennifer Doudna, nobel prize winner and leader in the Crispr technology that became so vital over the last year. Great read!

Hooked_on_books While I‘m thrilled he wrote this, I‘m disappointed that it took until 2021 for him to publish a book profiling a woman. 4y
Leftcoastzen Love your bobblehead! 4y
Booksnchill @Hooked_on_books valid point certainly 4y
See All 7 Comments
Booksnchill @Leftcoastzen isn‘t he awesome? He sits on my shelf next to my crocheted Bernie in mittens 4y
Graywacke A Fauci doll !! ❤️ 4y
Booksnchill @Graywacke I enjoy his presence on my bookshelves! 4y
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Readerann
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My progress from Day 1 of #20in4. Quite a variety in reading material! 😁📚📚

Andrew65 A good start 👏👏👏 4y
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TugstenDragon
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My first book I have bailed on this year. Maybe it‘s because I work in science that I just found all the science history/background tangents unnecessary and not grabbing me into the story. Maybe I‘ll try again another time.

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Twainy
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Pickpick

🎧 Not your average biography. There‘s very little about Jennifer Doudna‘s personal life.

This book takes on science in a way that the lay person can parse. How & why did Dr Doudna take CRISPR from inception to a Nobel prize? There are mini-biographies of the many scientists involved in this technology & Hollywood-like court battles.

I found Part 7 particularly interesting as it delves into, should we?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Amazon Book Wishlist!

CaroPi Just add it to my TBR! 4y
Twainy @CaroPi I liked it as it‘s a female scientist being recognized for her contributions, is current through Covid & gives you an overview of the science/tech from inception to Nobel Prize. It leaves things out for reasons that are understandable. Excellent book. 4y
RamsFan1963 If library hold hasn't come by the end of April, I'm going to use my audible credit to buy the audiobook. I've heard lots of praise for this book. 4y
Twainy @RamsFan1963 I‘m not sure if my library bought more or if people were intimidated but my 6 month wait was only like a month. I‘m definitely buying the book as it‘s an easy reread! 🖤 4y
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thevagabondlawyer
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Pickpick

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 What a beautiful, remarkable book! The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson is about fathoming the joyful and inspiring wonders of life through the lens of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) which are the hallmark of a bacterial defense system that forms the basis for CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology. Scientific in nature, but Isaacson's approach is akin to a detective novel where 👇

thevagabondlawyer tensions and conflicts loom in a race of brilliant scientists to finally discover the secrets of genes and how to edit it for treatment of gene-related diseases. I am not a science person but I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. One thing is certain: great discoveries are not singular but collaborative in nature, across all 👇 4y
thevagabondlawyer fields and personalities. Here, you'll meet so many people who have contributed, one way or another, to the discovery of CRISPR, and how, in this time of pandemic, this gene-editing tool will have a great impact in our lives. I highly recommend this book! 🙏👌
4y
Twainy I recommended this book while it was in pre-order status to my library. So my wait on the hold list wasn‘t 12 months 😂 I‘m hoping to listen to it this weekend. Looks good! 4y
MsMelissa Nice review. I bought this one last weekend and am looking forward to reading it 😊 4y
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Booksnchill
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Got this signed edition from #ParnassusBooks after attending a virtual event where Walter Isaacson was interviewed by John Meacham- read it! Want to know how the Covid Vaccine got done? Well here is the timely story of Crispr and genetic engineering- fascinating! Happy Easter all!

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Floresj
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Pickpick

I loved this book. It had so many things that I‘m interested in and value: CRISPR discovery, women in science, international collaboration, competition, fascinating explanation of how COVID testing and the RNA based vaccinations work, discussions of people- their faults and geniuses, and the future of science. It inspired and installed my faith in humanity.

KatieB Ok, that did it! Just ordered it online! 4y
15 likes1 comment
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Gaylagal2

As I'm sitting here reading and revisiting Litsy pals, any book swaps coming up? Or needed donations of books to anyone?
Thanks in advance 🤓🤙❤️

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Gaylagal2
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A new MacBook Air, a very cute little dog and a great new book. What could be better on a Sunday morning? Not much 🤙
PS: the MacBook is a refurbished to perfection, with an i7 core, 8GB and works perfect! I've been wanting another MacBook for 17 years - now I've got it. The store I purchased from is called Fleetwood-Macbooks on eBay...they are awesome!!
#sundayreading

MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm I‘ve been eyeballing a MacBook for a bit. Thank you for the shop name, I‘ll be checking them out! ❤️ Your pupper is so precious! 😍 4y
AmyG Ha!!!! I love the store name! How glorious is it to get a new laptop. 🙌🏻 4y
Gaylagal2 @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm You are so welcome! They have many choices, warranty, tech support and I paid $650...a total bargain! I really shopped around and first considered Newegg, but they offer the shittiest return/warranty 🙄 Happy shopping!🤙 4y
ReadingRachael Love the cute little dog ❤️. Really curious about that book too....I think I might need to pick up a copy 🤓😂 4y
32 likes4 comments
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JMEdwards
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"Darwin had in his personal library a copy of an obscure scientific journal that contained an article, written in 1866, with the answer. But he never got around to reading it..."

There is a lesson in here somewhere.

Crazeedi Have to read 4y
Copwithabook 😂 4y
26 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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Twainy
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Ooooo I want to read or listen to this ... seems like I‘m gonna have to bump something off my library hold list .... 😡😋

Twainy Rules of Civility came off my Libby Hold List and this book went in this morning ... it doesn‘t come out until Tuesday. I‘m #52 on 2 copies ... a wait of well over a year 😆 4y
23 likes1 comment