Description

In 2012, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Jennifer Doudna hit upon an invention that will transform the future of 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. It has already been deployed to cure deadly diseases, fight the coronavirus pandemic in the form of the Pfizer vaccine, and make inheritable changes in the genes of babies. But what does that mean for humanity? Should we be hacking our own DNA to make us less susceptible to disease? Should we democratise the technology that would allow parents to enhance their kids? After discovering this CRISPR, Doudna is now wrestling with these even bigger issues. In The Code Breaker, the unparalleled non-fiction writer Walter Isaacson examines how life as we know it is about to change through a brilliant portrayal of the woman leading the way.