Walter Isaacon, the bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with an 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. Driven by a passion for understanding how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make the most important biological advance since James Watson’s 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 has opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna has become a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life, to the future of our species.
