The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

by Walter Isaacson

At one point, he scribbled in his notes, “Speaker sounds like she has taken Xanax.”

Lovell-Badge, whose usual hue is an English pale, turned almost white as he listened.

But in the wake of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, the idea of editing our genes to make us immune to virus attacks began to seem a bit less appalling and a bit more appealing.

preimplantation genetic diagnosis.

One must be a fanatic believer in salvation through suffering to think that any good comes from its existence.

The evolutionary process cares little about what happens to us after we have children and get them to a safe age,

“My blood just does not like me very much, I guess,” he says. “Sometimes you have a little sickle-cell crisis. Sometimes you have a really bad one. But I’m not just going to not play basketball.”3

biology has become the new tech.

“Failure hovers uncomfortably close to greatness,”

“You can call it a stunt if you want, but it’s really about people taking control of science and moving it fucking faster,”

If his shadow has offended, think but this and all is mended: More citizen involvement in science is a good thing.

biology should not remain the exclusive realm of a gospel-guarding priesthood.

I was impressed and comforted that the NIH had something called a Department of Bioethics.

Bare minimum?

But there was none of the ordinary social chat that lubricates real life and nurtures emotional connections.

a tight smile on the face of Rosalind Franklin’s ghost.

“The only thing better than winning a Nobel Prize,” he said, “is having one of your students win one.”

It’s good to have strong opinions about gene engineering in humans, but it’s even better if you know what a gene is.