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

by Walter Isaacson

It reminds me of my favorite note that Leonardo da Vinci scribbled in the margin of one of his crammed notebook pages: “Describe the tongue of the woodpecker.” Who wakes up one morning and decides he needs to know what the tongue of a woodpecker looks like? The passionately and playfully curious Leonardo, that’s who.