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A review by jasonfurman
A Crack in Creation by Jennifer A. Doudna
4.0
I considered picking up [a:Walter Isaacson|7111|Walter Isaacson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1192222433p2/7111.jpg]'s [b:The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race|54968118|The Code Breaker Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race|Walter Isaacson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1610894755l/54968118._SY75_.jpg|85738526] but then decided I would rather hear directly from Jennifer Doudna, co-winner of the Nobel Prize for her co-discovery of CRISPR, the gene editing technique that went from virtually nothing to ubiquitous and transformational in just a few years. While I can't compare them because I haven't read Isaacson (but still might), I can say Doudna's (and her student Samuel Sternberg) version was excellent.
The book is basically in three parts with somewhat different writing styles and levels of difficulty. The first is about the biology of CRISPR, a bit of the history that led to it, the sequence of discoveries, how it works, and how it was initially applied. This section is not always easy, it is dense with a decent amount of jargon. All of it is reasonably well explained and can be followed but it isn't always fun. It does, however, convey the excitement of discovery, the collaborative process and some of the competition too. But it is not quite science written on the level of Brian Greene or memoir on the level of James Watson. (Of course, Doudna didn't win her Nobel Prize for this book but for her pathbreaking discoveries.)
The next part of the book is about the applications of CRISPR for agriculture, health, and other areas. The reading got a lot easier and my only complaint--which is hardly the author's fault--is that it was published in 2017 so left me wanting to know more about even more recent years given how rapidly the technology is evolving.
The final part of the book was in many ways the most interesting where Doudna grapples with the ethics of CRISPR. She starts spending considerable time outside the lab talking to ethicists, stakeholders (like people with diseases) and others. What is interesting is that this process of engagement both reduces her confidence (in a good way) and changes her mind. She really listened, took in all sides, and sympathizes with them. She starts out with a harder line against using CRISPR for germ-line modification but ends up more sympathetic to finding ways to eventually do it safely given the tremendous toll of genetic diseases and various safeguards that may be possible.
Ultimately Doudna is a changed person--from helping make a breathtaking scientific breakthrough to then thinking hard and deep about its implications and the importance of scientists not just speaking to each other but also speaking to the public--and (in what is less common) listening to them to.
The book is basically in three parts with somewhat different writing styles and levels of difficulty. The first is about the biology of CRISPR, a bit of the history that led to it, the sequence of discoveries, how it works, and how it was initially applied. This section is not always easy, it is dense with a decent amount of jargon. All of it is reasonably well explained and can be followed but it isn't always fun. It does, however, convey the excitement of discovery, the collaborative process and some of the competition too. But it is not quite science written on the level of Brian Greene or memoir on the level of James Watson. (Of course, Doudna didn't win her Nobel Prize for this book but for her pathbreaking discoveries.)
The next part of the book is about the applications of CRISPR for agriculture, health, and other areas. The reading got a lot easier and my only complaint--which is hardly the author's fault--is that it was published in 2017 so left me wanting to know more about even more recent years given how rapidly the technology is evolving.
The final part of the book was in many ways the most interesting where Doudna grapples with the ethics of CRISPR. She starts spending considerable time outside the lab talking to ethicists, stakeholders (like people with diseases) and others. What is interesting is that this process of engagement both reduces her confidence (in a good way) and changes her mind. She really listened, took in all sides, and sympathizes with them. She starts out with a harder line against using CRISPR for germ-line modification but ends up more sympathetic to finding ways to eventually do it safely given the tremendous toll of genetic diseases and various safeguards that may be possible.
Ultimately Doudna is a changed person--from helping make a breathtaking scientific breakthrough to then thinking hard and deep about its implications and the importance of scientists not just speaking to each other but also speaking to the public--and (in what is less common) listening to them to.