

The book is well written, and easily accessible to the general public, delving deep enough into the technical side without being overwhelming. The authors tell the story of the discovery of the gene editing technology called called CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) (of DNA), current experimental results, future potential applications, and finally ethical and social questions regarding use of the same.

We owe Doudna several times over.” - Guardian Read more “The future is in our hands as never before, and this book explains the stakes like no other.” - George Lucas Writing with fellow researcher Sam Sternberg, Doudna-who has since won the Nobel Prize for her CRISPR research-shares the thrilling story of her discovery and describes the enormous responsibility that comes with the power to rewrite the code of life. Yet even the tiniest changes to DNA could have myriad, unforeseeable consequences, to say nothing of the ethical and societal repercussions of intentionally mutating embryos to create “better” humans. The cheapest, simplest, most effective way of manipulating DNA ever known, CRISPR may well give us the cure to HIV, genetic diseases, and some cancers. That is, until 2015, when biologist Jennifer Doudna called for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-a revolutionary new technology that she helped create-to make heritable changes in human embryos. Not since the atomic bomb has a technology so alarmed its inventors that they warned the world about its use.

This book is required reading for every concerned citizen-the material it covers should be discussed in schools, colleges, and universities throughout the country.”- New York Review of Books BY THE WINNER OF THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY | Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
