A biography of biochemist Jennifer Doudna, tracing her path from a childhood fascination with DNA to her Nobel Prize-winning co-invention of CRISPR gene-editing. Isaacson uses her story to explore the collaborative and competitive nature of modern science, the race to develop CRISPR, and the profound ethical questions raised by the power to rewrite the code of life.
Books mentioned in The Code Breaker (15)
The Double Helix by James D. Watson: “And that is how a used paperback copy of James Watson's The Double Helix ended up on her bed one day when she was in sixth grade, waiting for her when she got home from school.”
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: “Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, published in 1932, describes a similarly dystopian future in which genetic modification produces an elite class of leaders with enhanced intellectual and physical traits.”
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell: “Books can also help shape our discussion: George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Orwell conjures up an Orwellian world in which information technology is used by 'Big Brother.'”
A Theory of Justice by John Rawls: “John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, which comes down on the side of favoring the good of the community.”
Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick: “Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia, which emphasizes the moral foundation for individual liberty.”
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy: “My favorite novel, Walker Percy's The Moviegoer, tells of the transformative effect the disabled boy Lonnie has on the other characters.”
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells: “In Wells's The Time Machine, published in 1895, a traveler to the future discovers that humans have evolved into two species, a leisure class of Eloi and a working class of Morlocks.”
The Plague by Albert Camus: Epigraph: —Albert Camus, The Plague, 1947 (opening Chapter 48, 'Call to Arms').
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton: “The elevator pitch: A Beautiful Mind meets Jurassic Park.”
A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar: “The elevator pitch: A Beautiful Mind meets Jurassic Park.”
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: “I asked Fyodor whether the coronavirus had led him to ask his father about Defoe's 1722 book, A Journal of the Plague Year.”
The Tempest by William Shakespeare: Epigraph: —William Shakespeare, The Tempest (opening Chapter 20, 'A Human Tool').
The Eighth Day of Creation by Horace Freeland Judson: Cited among the histories of molecular biology and genetics that shaped the book's account: Horace Freeland Judson, The Eighth Day of Creation.
Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif: “Named among the science books that inspired the young researchers, Paul de Kruif's classic Microbe Hunters.”
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis: Referenced as one of the novels about scientists that influenced its subjects.