The Code Breaker Paperback – May 12, 2022

Absolutely one of the best books I have read about our genes. It is real a riddle that all living material can be written by 4 by nuclei acids adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine found in DNA and in RNA uracil.First the reader is told about the DNA helix and the fantastic discover thar crispr is the immune system of the bacteria to fight virus. We really are lead in till the future of what this tool can do for the human species. The ethical discussion is very important for all physicians. It is very well written almost as a criminal novel.It gave my many thoughts being a physician for 50 years

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 was awarded jointly to Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." However, it was only after the publication of the book “Double Helix” by Watson in 1968 that DNA became a household word and the world came to realize that it had entered the biomolecular age. More than half of a century later, in 2020, the Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing” This time, it took only a few months for the book “The Code-Breaker” by science historian Walter Isaacson to be published. Irrespective whether the hard-to-pronounce gene cutter, “CRISPR-Cas9” will become a household word, there is hardly any doubt that “the future of the Human Race” (the subtitle of the book), is at stake.Although the main character of the book is Jennifer Doudna, the account of her journey in the discovery of CRISPR-Cas 9 involves a cast of amazing group of colleagues, collaborators and competitors. Foremost among them are her main collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier and her main competitor Feng Zhang. Other interesting personalities include several scientists in her lab at Berkeley, Director of the MIT Broad Institute Eric Lander, Professor George Church of Harvard, to name just a few. Then there is the Chinese doctor He Jiankui, whose project on CRISPR babies Nana and Lulu brought him jail instead of glory, and the colorful biohacker Josiah Zayner, who wanted to demonstrate on YouTube how easy CRISPR is and to inspire people to do that at home.The color photos throughout the book add to the liveliness of their stories.The stories told in the book illustrate many characteristics common to scientists – ambitious, competitive, eager to be first and eager to be recognized, occasional selfishness but also capable of generosity. It is touching to see that, in fighting Covid 19, rival teams come together to collaborate and they made their findings freely available to the community instead of fighting for patents. It is timely to learn that the Covid mRNA vaccines developed is directly the result of the research that led to CRISPR.Above all, scientists are driven by curiosity and the beauty of nature. Both the book and the author’s TV interviews cited Jennifer’s curiosity as a little girl growing up in Hilo, Hawaii, wondering why the fernlike leaves of “sleeping grass” curl up when touched. There was no mention in the book whether Jennifer found the biological mechanism which led to the leaves folding. It would be nice to add a sentence or two to explain the reason (for the un-initiated).The scientists in the story are also keenly aware of the consequences of their discoveries to society and mankind. There were several conferences devoted to discuss the ethical and moral problems concerning gene-editing. Attempts were made to formulate guidelines in conducting future research, without noticeable success. The author presents a number of thought experiments to illustrate the complexity of these issues, which centered around under what circumstances is it ethical and moral to intervene with gene-editing. If it is up to me, I would say that absolute medical necessity and getting rid of unbearable suffering should be the main, if not the sole criteria.The book ends with two moving stories, one joyful and one sad. The joyful one involves the reconciliation of Jennifer and Emmanuelle, who had drifted apart after their Nobel prize winning Discovery, due to differences in personality. The sad one concerns James Watson, who was ostracized by his own Institution, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, for saying racially insensitive things.There are memorable and provocative quotes in the book, two of which are given below:“If man wants to play God, he has to first learn to be man.” - author unknown“If scientists don’t play God, who will?” - James WatsonFinally, the author is to be complimented that, while he studied almost everything under the sun (history, literature, politics, philosophy and economics) in college, except science, he was able to guide the reader through the jungle of DNA, RNA, CRISPR, CAS, CARVER, PAC-MAN, etc. Most amazing of all, he even learned to use CRASPR-cas9 to edit.

"A's are even dumber than B's." I read that slightly modified quote and cackled. I might've even laughed. Come to think of it, I think I even guffawed. And I'm a member of Group B to boot!But you might laugh too if you read that quote in, "The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race" (CB), at least if you replace A and B with a couple of defined groups in America. A couple of groups that are not only disparate but disparaged as well. I'll admit I laughed, even though I guess I'm a member of group B. But then again, I have been occasionally accused of having a sense of humor, although not too often as that would be unseemly. But a sense of humor is something that unfortunately seems to be in short supply nowadays, unlike researchers racing to write papers to beat their competitors in order to win a Nobel Prize. And things like that.But that off-the-record quote I believe came from James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for his and his partner Francis Crick's academic paper proposing a double-helix structure for DNA. Mr. Watson has made other so-called "controversial statements" that have taken him even more out of favor, supposedly. Now, I will admit that some of Mr. Watson's assertions have probably crossed the line, but what made me more upset than anything he's ever said: the so-called "Scientific Community's" response to those assertions. When someone makes an assertion that you don't like, instead of, oh, using an ad hominem attack against the person, or simply dismissing him without thought, here's an idea: create an experiment that either proves or disproves that assertion, run that experiment, and then publish the results. And maybe get lucky enough to even change his or her mind. What a novel idea! Although changing one's mind is maybe even rarer than a sense of humor. Ahem.Currently the number-one review for CB, which gives a 3-star rating, was written by someone who knows a lot about biology and DNA and RNA and all of that stuff, surely more than I do, and he even admits that he's not a member of the "target market" for CB. Fair enough. I think that he has a point giving CB only three stars although for me, if I am going to complain about CB, I might write that it can be a bit of a slog. There are moments where I was really intrigued, there were moments where I was downright bored -- there were more repeats in ideas in CB than repeats in CRISPR -- and there were, once again, moments where I actually laughed out loud. Literally. And I rarely use the word literally. As my German professor in college once opined, "'Literally' means literally nothing." That drew a laugh from me as well, come to think of it, especially since English wasn't his first language.But while I am giving CB a fairly good review score it doesn't mean that I always liked it. As a matter of fact, one thing that really bothered me while reading: I had a hard time finding anyone featured in the book that I found to be -- how should I write? -- a "sympathetic character." I took a few Drama classes in college, mostly to fulfill some liberal arts requirements for an unrelated science degree, and the professor said something like, "If you're going to write a screenplay, you'd better create at least one character that the audience can root for." I'll begrudgingly admit I had one in CB: Jo Zayner. Now Mr. Zayner is a controversial figure, maybe even more controversial than Mr. Watson if that's possible. Mr. Zayner takes some zany risks is all that I will write. But you get the feeling that he's looking out for the "little guy." The rest of the characters in CB seem to talk a good game -- "We're doing what we do because we want to help people! Yay!" -- but I simply didn't buy a word of it. After all there is more infighting in the CRISPR world than in "Survivor."I've read quite a few books now from the author of CB, Walter Isaacson: "Steve Jobs." "Elon Musk." "The Code Breaker" obviously. And right after I finished CB I downloaded a sample of "Leonardo Da Vinci" (LDV), read a chapter, then bought it. I'm reading LDV right now as a matter of fact. I will write that, while I'm not as big of a fan of Mr. Isaacson as I am of Richard Preston, the author of, "The Hot Zone," and many other terrific reads, I still am a fan of Mr. Isaacson nonetheless. Mr. Isaacson is an excellent author, particularly of biographies. But I'll admit, while reading, I just kept thinking that the people who got the most credit for CRISPR maybe shouldn't have. Unlike that other reviewer I don't know anyone in the book but I get the feeling that Emmanuelle Charpentier was the person who maybe should've gotten the most credit. After all she went to Jennifer Doudna in San Juan, PR during a conference with the initial basic idea, I believe. And there was a graduate student much earlier -- I forget his name evidently just like the committee for the Nobel Prize -- who seemed to be the first person who noticed repeat DNA sequences that started it all. Why didn't he get some kind of award? You've got me.But alas, one can and may like a book and dislike most of the characters. After all, when reviewing a book, in my opinion you really should mostly review it from the perspective of: did the author do a good or even great job with his writing? If so, well, maybe you'll give that book a 4-star rating instead of a 3-star rating. I will admit I hemmed and hawed over what review score I should give, "The Code Breaker," though.

An interesting read. The main character is remarkable even today, but more so in her time. It was intellectually interesting, but the part that lasted with me was the way the German government made conscious decision to 'make stuff up' - throw it at the wall and confuse people as a actual campaign to 'peacefully conquer the United States.

Um dos melhores livros biográficos que li nos últimos anos!

I purchased the Kindle version of this book.This book gives a laymen's view of what CRISPR is, how it was discovered, the technology that preceded it and how it works. The ethical aspects of the use of the technology is of great interest.Some of my thoughts on the applications: The African Cheetah experienced a genetic bottle neck when at some time in the distant past, an event wiped out most of them leaving only a few individuals to repopulate the species. The Persian Cheetah left Africa at a time which preceded this event and they do not have this genetic bottleneck. It should be possible to re-introduce genetic diversity to the African Cheetah with the Persian Cheetah. If the two species cannot naturally mate, then this technology could help the process.Similarly, the American Buffalo was nearly wiped out in the 19th century. The former sites of Buffalo jumps could contain bones and teeth which could be used to reintroduce genetic diversification to the remaining population to increase its resistance to disease. In the melting permafrost in North America there are hunting grounds that are tens of thousands of years old which have frozen feces from Buffalo, Reindeer and other species, some extinct, some not which could be collected in order to re-introduce genetic diversification when needed or bring back extinct species. There is a limited time window to gather this material of species plants and animals before the permafrost of the world thaws.Natural selection is credited for which genes get passed on but if your ancestor lived in Pompei or near Krakatoa, then the only reason his genes were passed on, is because he was 13+ of miles away out of town when the volcano erupted. Similarly, mass extinction events like the comet(s) at the end of the younger dryas which flash melted glaciers on top of mountains (likely responsible for flood myths throughout the world) or meteor strikes in the ocean that caused tsunamis or massive mudslides can rapidly eliminate people's genes from the gene pool regardless of their perceived quality.Sometimes, ancestral DNA is found from remains in glaciers, from the earth of caves, from ancient bones, teeth or corpses recuperated from bogs. These could contain the key to eliminating certain genetic diseases or resistance from the infection from ancient bacteria or viruses which are yet to emerge from the melting permafrost. Mapping and cataloging ancient DNA found in this way could be key in future health care.This book at some point mentions that Darwin had commented that humans are incapable of manufacturing Vitamin C like many species are. The book "Syndrome X" by Challem, Berkson and Smith said that Humans used to be able to manufacture Vitamin C with their liver from the glucose in their blood but the gene responsible for this had become defective about 6 million years ago. If a working version of that gene from ancestral DNA or from a different species could be re-introduced. Then type II diabetics could produce Vitamin C from the excess glucose in their blood. Vitamin C is found in fruits and vegetable and is safe in large quantities. A person could get liver cells implanted which have the working version of that gene to help treat their diabetes by converting excess glucose to Vitamin C. This would be similar to the gene therapy that was developed for Hunter's syndrome.There is also an infantile type of insulin whose production gets turned off as human age and start to produce an adult form of insulin. Perhaps someone unable to produce their own adult insulin could have the infantile version of the insulin turned back on. I've read that certain types tumors are capable of producing insulin, perhaps this kind of cells could be used to create an artificial pancreas without the risk of turning into cancer cells for type I diabetics eliminating the need for costly unending injections.There are a lot of potential applications for this technology, and I hope that in the future they will benefit the health and lower the cost of health care.

Very encouraging that we have come this far but the questions discussed on it’s usage specially diminishing DIVERSITY I have no doubt that it will UNDERMINE humankind natural defense system and diminish all of us in so many ways ( creativity & resilience to begin with ) . As a person and as a scientist I LOVE JENNIFER

This book delves into the world of Gene Editing primarily focused on CRISPR. Written in the typical Walter-Style, it can be easily understood by laymen without getting into the intricacies.Writing is simple, flow is very natural and it is about so close in the past that it feels exciting to know it all happened all around us.

The progress man can make for humankind is exponential henceforth.A lot of work needs to be done and it means that unemployment can be eradicated if the potential from this science is seized.