具体描述
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.
用户评价
##should be the code breakers. 一开始是抱着Bill Gates 推荐过所以想看，不得不说有点失望。但是看到Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 资助了以后就也没那么意外了。
##感觉看了一部宫斗剧？
##我并不很喜欢沃尔特.艾萨克森，以前看过其乔布斯传（中文），达芬奇传（有声书），总的来说，中规中矩。 然就本书而言，通过传记故事的方式，学到很多生化知识，体验象牙塔里的科研生活，还是很有收获。 最难忘怀的情节是他对Watson和其儿子的访问，可惜太短，毕竟是枝节。 人物传记，尽管是著名人物，要写出史诗感，张力十足也不容易。
##感觉看了一部宫斗剧？
##其实应该叫The Code Breakers，除了Doudna and Charpentier, 作者对Zhang Feng的评价也很高，作者一直在强调对于基础科学研究的重要性，在十四五计划也有强调，期待各国能加大科研投入for a greater good
##作为对科技新闻有一定关注的读者，我是觉得传记大拿的这本新书略略有点水、有点散呀……可能书中纪事我多少有些了解，所以读来新鲜感不强。而厚厚近600页感觉有点四不像——既不是传记、也不是新闻调查；有点像在翻资料汇编，又有点像在刷公众号。 不过也不难看。最留下印象的几点： ➊用生物学词汇mosaic来形容人性的复杂多面向，a better description than grayscale； ➋第一次了解到biohackers（书中以Josiah Zayner为代表）这个群体。如何看待citizen science（民科）？ ➌作者引用Michael Sandel教授关于“playing god”的论述； ➍D与C两位女科学家渐行渐远（不是闹翻）的友谊（研究合作与私交两个层面）。
##挺好看的，实效性很强，跟covid联系很紧密。最喜欢看这种众人拾柴火焰高，每个人的研究都为某个成功的发现奠定基石的故事。所以其实叫code breakers确实更合适，很喜欢Doudna和Charpentier这种微妙的情感，既是合作者又有点小竞争的感觉。中间有段讲gene editing的好处和坏处觉得有点离题，好在后面又拉回来了
##平平无奇 你好我好大家好
##这本书的写法太闷了，吸引人的反而是那些争议角色，比如口无遮拦的沃森，或者死捧弟子的Eric Lander，其他角色都立不起来。好在crispr周围的抓马就算遇到这种笔触也丝毫没有减少八点档特质。伦理部分非常浅，有大段丝毫没有建设性的“上帝”“自然”讨论，这都什么年代了。在我看来社交网络还邪恶得要死呢，但人家已经在这里了，好好拆分和针对性解决吧。有朝一日我一定能等来有个性有文笔还不谈上帝的生物学家重写这段往事的