The Code Breaker

Walter Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He is the author of Leonardo da Vinci; The Innovators; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; and Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. Visit him at Isaacson.Tulane.edu.

出版者:Simon & Schuster

作者:Walter Isaacson

页数:560

出版时间:2021-3-9

价格:USD 29.99

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9781982115852

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 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 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? 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 a thrilling detective tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

读后感

I enjoyed reading the book. I appreciate that Walter has explained the concepts of biochemistry, a subject rather unfamiliar to me, in a both thorough and understandable way, covering a wide range of topics around CRISPR, including the history, the scientif...  

Informative, Entertaining, Thorougher, Balanced, and Up-to-date Some personal takeaways: 1. Scientic research, like venture investing or many other endeavors in life, rewards risk taking and audacity. You ought to aim high, pursue big dreams, and be willing...  

这本书主要围绕Jennifer Doudna, 回顾了CRISPR和基因编辑的探讨. 写的跌宕起伏, 描述了科学研究者之间秘密竞争同时又对自然保护好奇心展开合作. 不同的研究者展示了非常不一样的个性. 后面几章讨论bioethics 和人类基因改造, 我不大喜欢. 作者自己个人想法太多,觉得有点肤浅, ...  

用户评价

很好的了解CRISP的科普

roadtrip上听完了有声书 比预计的更有意思更drama crispr出来的时候 很多报道podcast采访 biotech/genes也hype很久了 但都知道了些皮毛 这本书听完才觉得真的懂了些 science确实是很competitive的field 特别是这些lab类的 发文章cycle还算快 就真的是分秒必争 同事之间的合作和竞争关系微妙 好奇如果有本从boston角度来讲(vs. Berkeley)会是怎么个态度 Isaacson很是细节之王 多少年前的事情 估计当事人都记不清楚了 他能写细致至极 feminism贯穿了整本书 最后几章讲gene editing moral的有点散

平平无奇 你好我好大家好

最多3.5星吧。与其说这是一本传记不如说是科普。然而作者写科普书的能力远不如其他专业学者。 关于基因编辑的道德问题作者花了很长的篇幅讨论，这个话题写几本书都可以，作者在这方面的理论知识显然还不够。道德问题谁都有权利发言，但写太多了看着很乏味。 零星的点:金字塔尖的竞争很激烈，人尖们犯过的错走过的弯路有借鉴意义，国外的前沿科学研究值得时刻跟进和关注。

读了Emmanuelle Charpentier, Feng Zhang, &He jiankui, CRISPR, Gene editing historic records部分，作者写到science内容一笔带过，想了解详细内容自己去看文献，历史的部分讲述得比较精彩，不搞学术的人读了能看到研究进步发展时间线上科学家们的主导、参与、被遗忘、被放弃及存活的真实展现，good read