The Code Breaker  Young Readers Edi..., Walter Isaacson
The Code Breaker  Young Readers Edi..., Walter Isaacson
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Code Breaker -- Young Readers Edition
Jennifer Doudna and the Race to Understand Our Genetic Code

Author: Walter Isaacson

Narrator: Kathe Mazur

Unabridged: 7 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/26/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Walter Isaacson’s #1 New York Times bestselling history of our third scientific revolution: CRISPR, gene editing, and the quest to understand the code of life itself, is now adapted for young readers!

When Jennifer Doudna was a sixth grader in Hilo, Hawaii, she came home from school one afternoon and found a book on her bed. It was The Double Helix, James Watson’s account of how he and Francis Crick had discovered the structure of DNA, the spiral-staircase molecule that carries the genetic instruction code for all forms of life.

This book guided Jennifer Doudna to focus her studies not on DNA, but on what seemed to take a backseat in biochemistry: figuring out the structure of RNA, a closely related molecule that enables the genetic instructions coded in DNA to express themselves. Doudna became an expert in determining the shapes and structures of these RNA molecules—an expertise that led her to develop a revolutionary new technique that could edit human genes.

Today gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR are already being used to eliminate simple genetic defects that cause disorders such as Tay-Sachs and sickle cell anemia. For now, however, Jennifer and her team are being deployed against our most immediate threat—the coronavirus—and you have just been given a front row seat to that race.

About Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson is the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies institute based in Washington, DC. He has been the chairman and CEO of CNN and the editor of Time Magazine. In 2011 he wrote a biography titled “Steve Jobs”, which was based off on over forty interviews with Jobs over a two-year period up until shortly before his death. It became an international best-seller, breaking all records for sales of a biography.

Isaacson was born on May 20, 1952, in New Orleans. He is a graduate of Harvard College and of Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He began his career at “The Sunday Times” of London and then the New Orleans “Times-Picayune”. He joined “Times” in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor, and editor of digital media before becoming the magazine’s 14th editor in 1996. He became chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.

Along with “Steve Jobs”, Isaacson has published several other books, including: “Einstein: His Life and Universe” (2007), “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life” (2003) and Kissinger: A Biography” (1992), as well as coauthor of “The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made” (1986). His most recent book, “The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution” (2014) is a biographical tale of the people who invented the computer, Internet and the other great innovations of the digital age. It became a New York Times bestseller.

Isaacson has been awarded many accolades of the years, including in 2012, when he was selected as one of the Time 100, the magazine’s list of the most influential people in the world.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tonja on April 14, 2022

I'll admit that I hadn't heard of Jennifer Doudna until picking this book up, but that's exactly what makes books like this wonderful...introducing little-known figures, who made an impact in their field. The original version of this book was released for the adult audience. This one attempts to pres......more

Goodreads review by Charlottemyers on December 16, 2024

I read The Code Breaker by Walter Issacson. This book is about how the CRISPR gene editing technology was made, and how using it to edit the genes of living organisms affected future generations and their lives or health. This book also covers the ethical boundaries of this technology, for example,......more

Goodreads review by Gretchen on July 25, 2022

I must admit to reading very closely for the first two sections of the book and then skimming and selecting sections of the remainder of the book. I thought it was very well written but it is very detailed about genetics which is not a casual topic to read about. I must admit that if this is the you......more

Goodreads review by Libby on October 18, 2022

An very ambitious revision of an adult book for teen readers that includes Doudna's biography as well as explanations of the science she was pursuing. There are good discussions of the difficult ethical questions related to CRISPR and manipulating genes. I wish the book had at least mentioned that v......more

Goodreads review by Dale on August 06, 2024

I am not a science person which is what made this a difficult read (even though it is the young adult version!). The parts of the narrative that were anecdotal and personal were far more interesting to me and of course, the ethical and moral questions are enormous. So....I know more now than I did b......more