A Crack In Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
  
“The future is in our hands as never before, and this book explains the stakes like no other.” — George Lucas

“Required reading for every concerned citizen.” — New York Review of Books
 
Not since the atomic bomb has a technology so alarmed its inventors that they warned the world about its use. 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. 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. 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. Writing with fellow researcher Sam Sternberg, Doudna shares the thrilling story of her discovery and describes the enormous responsibility that comes with the power to rewrite the code of life.
 
“An invaluable account . . . We owe Doudna several times over.” — Guardian

• Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves
• A Crack in Creation: The New Power to Control Evolution
• The Gene: An Intimate History
• The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance
• The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life
• Biopunk: Solving Biotech's Biggest Problems in Kitchens and Garages
• Evolving Ourselves: Redesigning the Future of Humanity--One Gene at a Time
• A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
• Fundamentals of Biochemistry: Life at the Molecular Level, 4th Edition
• She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity