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The code breaker : Jennifer Doudna, gene editing, and the future of the human race / Walter Isaacson.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: SoundSoundPublisher number: 13577252Publisher: [New York] : Audioworks, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, [2021]Copyright date: ℗2021Edition: UnabridgedDescription: 13 audio discs (approximately 16 hr.) ; 4 3/4 inContent type:
  • spoken word
Media type:
  • audio
Carrier type:
  • audio disc
ISBN:
  • 9781797117041
  • 1797117041
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Introduction. Into the breach -- Part one. The origins of life. Hilo ; The gene ; DNA ; The education of a biochemist ; The human genome ; RNA ; Twists and folds ; Berkeley -- Part two. CRISPR. Clustered repeats ; The Free Speech Movement Café ; Jumping in ; The yogurt makers ; Genentech ; The lab ; Caribou ; Emmanuelle Charpentier ; CRISPR-Cas9 ; Science, 2012 ; Dueling presentations -- Part three. Gene editing. A human tool ; The race ; Feng Zhang ; George Church ; Zhang tackles CRISPR ; Doudna joins the race ; Photo finish ; Doudna's final sprint ; Forming companies ; Mon amie ; The heroes of CRISPR ; Patents -- Part four. CRISPR in action. Therapies ; Biohacking ; DARPA and anti-CRISPR -- Part five. Public scientist. Rules of the road ; Doudna steps in -- Part six. CRISPR babies. He Jiankui ; The Hong Kong summit ; Acceptance -- Part seven. Moral questions. Red lines ; Thought experiments ; Who should decide? ; Doudna's ethical journey -- Part eight. Dispatches from the front. Quebec ; I learn to edit ; Watson revisited ; Doudna pays a visit -- Part nine. Coronavirus. Call to arms ; Testing ; The Berkeley lab ; Mammoth and Sherlock ; Coronavirus tests ; Vaccines ; CRISPR cures ; Cold Spring Harbor virtual ; The Nobel Prize.
Cast: Read by Käthe Mazur.Summary: A portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist explores the impact of James Watson's "The Double Helix" on her career and how her team's invention of CRISPR technology enabled revolutionary DNA-editing approaches to fighting disease, as well as curing diseases, fending off viruses, and enhancing our children.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Audiobook Adult Audiobook Main Library Audiobook 576.5 I73 Available 33111009927498
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A 2022 Audie Award Finalist

A Best Book of 2021 by Bloomberg BusinessWeek , Time , and The Washington Post

The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a "compelling" ( The Washington Post ) 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 codiscovery 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 an "enthralling detective story" ( Oprah Daily ) that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

Title from container.

Read by Käthe Mazur.

Compact discs.

A portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist explores the impact of James Watson's "The Double Helix" on her career and how her team's invention of CRISPR technology enabled revolutionary DNA-editing approaches to fighting disease, as well as curing diseases, fending off viruses, and enhancing our children.

Introduction. Into the breach -- Part one. The origins of life. Hilo ; The gene ; DNA ; The education of a biochemist ; The human genome ; RNA ; Twists and folds ; Berkeley -- Part two. CRISPR. Clustered repeats ; The Free Speech Movement Café ; Jumping in ; The yogurt makers ; Genentech ; The lab ; Caribou ; Emmanuelle Charpentier ; CRISPR-Cas9 ; Science, 2012 ; Dueling presentations -- Part three. Gene editing. A human tool ; The race ; Feng Zhang ; George Church ; Zhang tackles CRISPR ; Doudna joins the race ; Photo finish ; Doudna's final sprint ; Forming companies ; Mon amie ; The heroes of CRISPR ; Patents -- Part four. CRISPR in action. Therapies ; Biohacking ; DARPA and anti-CRISPR -- Part five. Public scientist. Rules of the road ; Doudna steps in -- Part six. CRISPR babies. He Jiankui ; The Hong Kong summit ; Acceptance -- Part seven. Moral questions. Red lines ; Thought experiments ; Who should decide? ; Doudna's ethical journey -- Part eight. Dispatches from the front. Quebec ; I learn to edit ; Watson revisited ; Doudna pays a visit -- Part nine. Coronavirus. Call to arms ; Testing ; The Berkeley lab ; Mammoth and Sherlock ; Coronavirus tests ; Vaccines ; CRISPR cures ; Cold Spring Harbor virtual ; The Nobel Prize.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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