The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing and the Future of the Human Race,” by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster)
Walter Isaacson did a masterful job on his biography of Steve Jobs, a hard-to-like character who revolutionized six industries – personal computers, phones, music, animated movies, tablet computing and digital publishing.
In “Code Breaker,” Isaacson’s central character is the much more likable biochemistry researcher and Nobel Prize winner, Jennifer Doudna, but the science is a tougher subject for the ordinary person to embrace.
And at 512 pages, Code Breaker is a hefty reading-time investment with big doses of science. A tough read at times with textbook-like digressions into the supporting science.
Isaacson conveys all this though with unflagging enthusiasm, as if he can barely restrain himself from turning into a scientist himself.
The ramifications of Doudna and her colleagues’ work is wondrous, scary and a testimony to the scientific expertise at our universities and research institutions.
From there, it’s a short step to creating designer humans. Want a tall child with brown eyes and dark hair? That ability raises moral and ethical concerns humans have not yet faced.
