That was true of the competition between Intel and Texas Instruments in developing the microchip. I was a little worried when I met him, because I was writing about people who had been his rivals, but he couldn’t have been nicer.Īnd so I think that access helped me show that science is a real human endeavor that often involves a lot of competition-for patents, for prizes, and for recognition. Feng Zhang, who is the principal competitor for patents and prizes, is one of the most charming, open, and interesting people you’ll ever meet. What was it like to try to capture that?Įveryone I spoke to was very generous. That moment, in many ways, represented the culmination of a years-long clash over who deserves credit for turning Crispr from a biological curiosity to one of the most powerful technologies ever invented. When I talked to her a few hours later, she told me she’d only learned about her win after the fact, from a reporter calling to get her comments. The funny thing is, Doudna actually slept through the phone calls from Stockholm. And when I heard the announcement I let out a holler. But on the morning that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was due to be announced, I still set my alarm for 4 am so I could listen to the live feed. I mean, it had only been eight years since Doudna and Charpentier’s landmark paper. Coincidence?ĭespite what people think about rigged election systems, I don’t have the ability to hack into the voting process of the Swedish Academy. So, you start writing about Jennifer Doudna and next thing you know, she wins the Nobel Prize.

Walter Isaacson is a professor of history at Tulane University. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. He spoke to WIRED from his home in New Orleans, where he is now a professor of history at Tulane University. Even if you think you know the story of Crispr, you don’t know it the way Isaacson does. Based on more than five years of reporting from the front lines of the DNA-hacking wars, the book is an immersive deep dive into the fascinating science of gene editing and the personal dramas playing out behind the discoveries. Isaacson’s latest book, The Code Breaker, breathlessly follows Doudna from a childhood spent trekking through the wilds of Hawaii to her pioneering work harnessing a bacterial defense system to rewrite the code of life-and the bitter patent battle that ensued-and ultimately winning the ultimate credit, the Nobel Prize. If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission.

The code breaker by walter isaacson