-
The Code Breaker
- Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $28.34
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Leonardo da Vinci
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Alfred Molina
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leonardo da Vinci created the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and engineering. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry.
-
-
Wish the sample was not from the preface!
- By Chris M. on 11-13-17
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Einstein
- His Life and Universe
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: You thought he was a stodgy scientist with funny hair, but Isaacson and Hermann reveal an eloquent, intense, and selfless human being who not only shaped science with his theories, but politics and world events in the 20th century as well. Based on the newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos.
-
-
This is the kind of book that deserves a Pulitzer
- By Amazon Customer on 05-08-07
By: Walter Isaacson
-
A Thousand Brains
- A New Theory of Intelligence
- By: Jeff Hawkins, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell, Richard Dawkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses map-like structures to build a model of the world - not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought.
-
-
Starts out good, ends up a train wreck
- By Warren on 03-15-21
By: Jeff Hawkins, and others
-
The Innovators
- How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson’s revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?
-
-
With Atlantean Shoulders, Fit to Bear
- By W Perry Hall on 10-06-15
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The Double Helix
- A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
- By: James D. Watson
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner, Roger Clark
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only 24, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries.
-
-
Documents more than it intended
- By Regina on 04-18-14
By: James D. Watson
-
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 24 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours. The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.
-
-
My kinda founding father...mostly...
- By Brad Barker on 06-08-13
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Leonardo da Vinci
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Alfred Molina
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leonardo da Vinci created the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and engineering. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry.
-
-
Wish the sample was not from the preface!
- By Chris M. on 11-13-17
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Einstein
- His Life and Universe
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 21 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: You thought he was a stodgy scientist with funny hair, but Isaacson and Hermann reveal an eloquent, intense, and selfless human being who not only shaped science with his theories, but politics and world events in the 20th century as well. Based on the newly released personal letters of Albert Einstein, Walter Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos.
-
-
This is the kind of book that deserves a Pulitzer
- By Amazon Customer on 05-08-07
By: Walter Isaacson
-
A Thousand Brains
- A New Theory of Intelligence
- By: Jeff Hawkins, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell, Richard Dawkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses map-like structures to build a model of the world - not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought.
-
-
Starts out good, ends up a train wreck
- By Warren on 03-15-21
By: Jeff Hawkins, and others
-
The Innovators
- How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson’s revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?
-
-
With Atlantean Shoulders, Fit to Bear
- By W Perry Hall on 10-06-15
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The Double Helix
- A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
- By: James D. Watson
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner, Roger Clark
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only 24, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries.
-
-
Documents more than it intended
- By Regina on 04-18-14
By: James D. Watson
-
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 24 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours. The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.
-
-
My kinda founding father...mostly...
- By Brad Barker on 06-08-13
By: Walter Isaacson
-
A Crack in Creation
- Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution
- By: Jennifer A. Doudna, Samuel H. Sternberg
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not since the atomic bomb has a technology so alarmed its inventors that they warned the world about its use. Not, that is, until the spring of 2015, when biologist Jennifer Doudna called for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the new gene-editing tool CRISPR - a revolutionary new technology that she helped create - to make heritable changes in human embryos.
-
-
An easily digestible intro to the future...
- By DC Mike on 09-01-17
By: Jennifer A. Doudna, and others
-
Kissinger
- A Biography
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 34 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time Henry Kissinger was made secretary of state in 1973, he had become, according to a Gallup poll, the most admired person in America and one of the most unlikely celebrities ever to capture the world’s imagination. Yet Kissinger was also reviled by large segments of the American public, ranging from liberal intellectuals to conservative activists. Kissinger explores the relationship between this complex man's personality and the foreign policy he pursued.
-
-
Thorough, well-researched and interesting bio.
- By Maya A. on 08-03-14
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The Premonition
- A Pandemic Story
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’ taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.
-
-
Why not Michael Lewis?
- By Brian on 05-04-21
By: Michael Lewis
-
How the World Really Works
- The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Stephen Perring
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check—because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.
-
-
Let me save you a credit: progress is hard
- By Dalton on 06-06-22
By: Vaclav Smil
-
Steve Jobs
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Dylan Baker
- Length: 25 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
-
-
Interesting man
- By Jeanne on 11-13-11
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Sapiens
- A Brief History of Humankind
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.
-
-
Fascinating, despite claims of errors
- By Jonas Blomberg Ghini on 12-09-19
-
Editing Humanity
- The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing
- By: Kevin Davies
- Narrated by: Kevin Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Engrossing and captivating, Editing Humanity takes listeners inside the fascinating world of a new gene editing technology called CRISPR, a high-powered genetic toolkit that enables scientists to not only engineer but to edit the DNA of any organism down to the individual building blocks of the genetic code. Davies introduces listeners to arguably the most profound scientific breakthrough of our time. He tracks the scientists on the front lines of its research to the patients whose powerful stories bring the narrative movingly to human scale.
-
-
Excellent content, solid execution
- By Samuel Finlayson on 01-25-21
By: Kevin Davies
-
The Emperor of All Maladies
- A Biography of Cancer
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Emperor of All Maladies reveals the many faces of an iconic, shape-shifting disease that is the defining plague of our generation. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, arrogance, paternalism, and misperception, all leveraged against a disease that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer".
-
-
Incredible
- By S.R.E. on 03-02-16
-
The Wise Men
- Six Friends and the World They Made
- By: Evan Thomas, Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Reese
- Length: 33 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six close friends shaped the role their country would play in the dangerous years following World War II. They were the original best and brightest, whose towering intellects, outsize personalities, and dramatic actions would bring order to the postwar chaos, and whose strong response to Soviet expansionism would leave a legacy that dominates American policy to this day. In April 1945, they converged to advise an untutored new president, Harry Truman.
-
-
Loved it, a must read!
- By Gutenberg on 03-12-15
By: Evan Thomas, and others
-
The Gene
- An Intimate History
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The extraordinary Siddhartha Mukherjee has written a biography of the gene as deft, brilliant, and illuminating as his extraordinarily successful biography of cancer. Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.
-
-
Scientific history blended with humanity
- By S. Yates on 05-23-16
-
The Undoing Project
- A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forty years ago Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original studies undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process. Their papers showed the ways in which the human mind erred systematically when forced to make judgments about uncertain situations. Their work created the field of behavioral economics, revolutionized Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made Michael Lewis' work possible.
-
-
Behind the scenes of amazing science
- By Neuron on 10-16-17
By: Michael Lewis
-
Ten Drugs
- How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Thomas Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.
-
-
Informative, entertaining, and thought-provoking.
- By Leyte L. Jefferson on 05-14-19
By: Thomas Hager
Publisher's Summary
A 2022 Audie Award Finalist
A Best Book of 2021 by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Time, and The Washington Post
The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a “compelling” (The Washington Post) 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 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 codiscovery 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. Her story is an “enthralling detective story” (Oprah Daily) that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Code Breaker
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Johan
- 03-14-21
Except for the author, this book is good!
Good book. Goes deep.
But remember it’s a biography! This book has a lot of science, and it’s got goodies if you’re curious about the technology. Even if you are interested in the history or the people, this book is a good book.
But the author has such a weird relationship with venture capitalists and an idea about “competitive competition” that he contradicts himself on so many occasions. He’s swaying a whole lot around the subject of “competitiveness”. The author describes open collaboration as the key to success in this case, but in the next part he’s basically telling the reader that patents and money is what makes the world go round. I’m not saying he’s wrong, but since this is a Biography I would like to know which one it is from HER standpoint.
I’m sorry Walter, but your own view on anything here is just slag polluting the process. Tell us what actually was important historically, not what you using your own personal frame of reference perceive to be important.
So which one was it? Was it her cut throat competitiveness or her collaborative collegial traits that made this breakthrough possible?
120 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David
- 03-16-21
Extraordinary and flawed
Code Breaker is an extraordinary professional biography of Dr. Jennifer Doudna, a history of the field of gene editing, and interwoven stories of many other scientists, teams, and academic labs globally. Code Breaker is best when Walter Isaacson explores these stories and allows the history to lead.
I rated Code Breaker 4-stars overall because it is at its worst when Walter Isaacson seems to be trying to beatify Dr. Doudna. These are sections of the book I found most annoying and possibly flawed. I stuck with it through every word but this preachiness left me with a negative reaction at the end.
I wanted to meet Leonardo and Steve Jobs when I finished reading Walter Isaacson’s biographies of them, as well as others in his book The Innovators. But by the end of Code Breaker I’m excited about Dr. Doudna’s accomplishments but I don’t want to meet her in person. This is a frustrating flaw in an otherwise extraordinary biography.
60 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A User
- 03-13-21
Great book. Get one and listen.
This book is both long and short, long because it is 16 hours, short because it tells stories and magicks time away. I have enjoyed 3 CRISPR-related books (by Nessa Carey, Jennifer Doudna, and Kevin Davies) and have decent background knowledge, and still, this new book excites me.
36 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- BarryM
- 03-22-21
Way too Judgemental
Three author too often inserted his opinions, and was way too judgemental for my tastes.
22 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mo
- 03-13-21
Couldn't be much better
As always, Walter Isaacson has written a brilliant book. Through the maze of science, he tells a very human story of one of the most significant breakthroughs in modern history. I'm 71 and can only imagine the positive impact of gene editing on my children and grandchildren. Thank you, Jennifer Doudna, you and your predecessors have laid the foundation for the curing of disease and the possible uplifting of humanity. As Walter says, the discovery of the atom, byte, and now CRISPR cas9 are the three most important scientific advances in the last 100 years. Walter, you're writing is inspiring and makes this story understandable. Thank you. Mo Siegel
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen L Gregory
- 03-20-21
Fascinating book
At first it was very technical & a little difficult to follow, but I continued on & am very glad I did. It picked up & held me enthralled to the very end. Even tho the book is read by a woman, occasionally I can hear Isaacson’s voice behind the words. I picked up this book after hearing him present in on ‘Morning Joe’ where he is a frequent commentator. I recall earlier in the year he briefly had mentioned being in a vaccine test group. Now all the things he said that day make sense. I now understand how we got our COVID vaccines in record time. In fact this book explains that it was a process over 40 years in the making. He describes & discusses the miraculous opportunities & morality decisions to be made by the development of CRISPR (something I never heard of prior to this book) by Jennifer Doudna & Charpentier. They are well deserving of their Nobel Prize for the gift they have brought the human race. Thank you Walter Isaacson for this book.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dr. Chris P. Hafner
- 03-21-21
An Exciting, Lucid, & Articulate Account of CRISPR, Gene-editing
An Exciting, Lucid, & Articulate Account of CRISPR, Gene-editing & the drivers behind the scientific leap forward brought to us by the joining of brilliant minds against viruses, including COVID19. As someone who has earned two doctorates, an MPH, worked at NIH & served as a scientific reviewer for grants, PAs/FOAs, peer-reviewed publications, and translated Scientific evidence into policy, I can relate to the academic, funding, publishing & policy sides of the competitive science community. This books fills an interesting & important gap for anyone who has an interest in the evolution of our species & the elimination of disease, disability & premature death.
~Dr. Chris P Hafner, PhD, ND, MPH, LAc
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- K. Boone
- 04-03-21
Fascinating , exciting story
Once again, Walter Isaacson slams a home run with his remarkable telling of Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna’s story— her life, her lab, her work. Someone suggests this is like a thriller , and in fact, as scientists race to address viruses such as Covid 19, it IS. I certainly wasn’t as acutely aware of the competition that exists across labs in the world, but also find myself heartened to appreciate new found collaborations that will accelerate the pace of discovery — to the benefit, we hope, of all humankind. This is a smart, fascinating and comprehensive look at the world of Crispr. And while I still would never pass a chem course, I believe everyone should read to appreciate the world of biotech and how our scientists will define much of our future.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David S.
- 03-15-21
Another great biography.
Once again Walter Isaacson delivers an engaging biography while explaining a subject in depth and with attention to the many contributions of the constellation of scientists working with and sometimes against his subject. CRISPR Cas9 is the subject of the book almost as much as Jennifer Doudna herself. The author does not shy away from offering his own opinions on the positions taken in the ongoing patent battle between Doudna and Berkeley Univ on the one hand and Eric Lander and The Broad Institute on the other. He also takes on directly the conflict between the opportunity for curing disease presented by CRISPR and the potential threat to society from unfair advantages that could be obtained if only a rich few can enhance their children through germline editing. In this regard I think Sapiens and other books by Yuval Noah Harari make good companions to The Code Breaker. Highly recommended.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jane A. Burman
- 03-23-21
What a wonderful book!
At first I thought this book might be boring. Boy, was I wrong. It is an amazing story of how pure scientific research can be applied to solve current problems. I loved this book
7 people found this helpful