In A crack in creation, Gene editing and the unthinkable power to control evolution, written by Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg, Dr. Doudna goes over the history of gene editing leading to the miraculous CRISPR which literally has the power to change every living thing in the world. Throughout the book Dr. Doudna describes the wonderful possibilities CRISPR has to offer the world of medicine and biology from curing diseases such as hyperargininemia or to creating super foods that grow bigger and faster that are also immune to all forms of infection without adding anything to the DNA. According to Doudna the possibilities are endless, but with all the good there is also a bad side. Humans now have the power to easily edit germline DNA in plants, animals, and humans that if implemented will forever change the course of that species evolution. This book is a must read for anyone who has an interest in genetics or the future of our species and the species we rely on. Doudna explains in depth how gene editing works and takes a neutral position explaining the bad and good that will inevitably come from this futuristic technology.
Doudna breaks the book into chapters based on different stages and effects of gene editing. The first 3 chapters don’t have much opinion or any sorts of argument. She just tells the story of how gene editing became a topic of research and how the first attempts at gene editing were unsuccessful until her work with CRISPR (a bacteria defense mechanism) found a cheap, reliable, and safe way to edit DNA in an incredibly accurate way. She begins talking about the ability to edit different foods DNA in a way that will eliminate much of our waste, increase nutritional value, and combat food shortages around the world. Dounda knows the amazing possibilities of CRISPR and how much good it can do for the world but knows that it’s an uphill fight against people who consider gene edited food to be dangerous. In her opinion the gene edited food is perfectly safe because no outside DNA was added, only changed within its own code. Changes that have occurred or could occur naturally by selective breeding or random mutation. After this chapter she looks at DNA editing in insects, animals, and humans. The first example she uses is mosquitos that have been modified so they can not contract or spread malaria. Eradicating malaria would be an amazing accomplishment for the entire world. She notes that close to 500,000 people die a year to malaria around the world. In her opinion this is a wonderful scenario that she believes should be put in place. On the other hand, other scientists have created germline edited mosquitos that only produce male offspring. Since these edits spread to their offspring all the male mosquitos born would impregnate female mosquitos and every mosquito offspring, they produce would only be male. This would eradicate all the mosquitos worldwide. Is eradicating a pest worldwide the right answer? Who decides if that is a power human should be able to control? Dounda believes for nature it would be okay, but if we take this step where will it end? Will we leap to reintroducing extinct species back into nature by using CRISPR to recreate them? It has been done and has been proven to be a viable option. She also brings up CRISPR edited animals. She compares things that would improve the lives of animals like cattle who are dehorned at a young age and things like designer pets. Should we just turn off the gene that makes cattle produce horns? Its been done in different labs around the world. Instead of burning the calf’s heads with hot metal we could simply turn off that gene and allow them to be born without horns. Is that more ethical than creating miniature animals like pigs? She talks about a lab in china that sells pigs who wont ever grow over 30lbs due to the gene for growth hormone being shut off. These pigs normally grow to around 200 lbs. but are stunted at 30 lbs. Aside from the extinct animals and designer pets, she believes there is a huge improvement for the world and for humans. There are labs that have created cattle that grow larger and produce up to 75% less greenhouse gas emissions. We would get more meat at the same time as we produce less waste for the environment. There are chickens, cattle, and pigs that are immune to most common diseases who require no antibiotics. Pigs that can digest phosphorus better and don’t put out phosphorus in waste which has contaminated some underground water and nearby streams. Finally, she comes to the use on humans. Some labs have already tested on human embryos which she believed to be unethical. She believes that use for therapy and curing of major diseases and cancers are not only possible but will be available within a few years and can end a lot of human suffering. She also mentioned the use for fixing individual issues is a completely different issue than changing germline DNA that will affect the course of human evolution. Some examples she included were deafness, some forms of blindness, and down syndrome as things that could be wiped out with germline editing. Will we agree that some of these uses are okay? In her opinion we are at a dangerous time in our thinking. We can decide now what is allowed and what is an ethical use of this powerful new tool.
This book has an incredible amount of credibility. Dr. Doudna was the lead scientist in the lab that discovered the use of CRISPR as a gene editing tool. She has firsthand experience and more knowledge on how the subject became what it is today than almost anyone else in the world. She is backed up by Dr. Sternberg who runs a research lab at Columbia university. This book uses research from many other papers and labs around the world. All examples she talked about including the hornless cattle, virus immune farm animals, and malaria free mosquitos are from reliable sources cited in the end of the book. As far as credibility goes, this is about as credible as you can be. One of the strengths of this book is actually a weakness in my opinion. Dounda is one of the most educated people in the world when it comes to biology and the use of CRISPR, so her explanations and examples are very in depth. This is great if you have basic knowledge of chemistry, biology, and gene therapy. If you lack an understanding of any of those subjects some of the explanations can be slightly hard to understand. As far as any real weaknesses go this book ahead of many smaller articles that have little to back them up.
This book can be found online in a few different places including Amazon. I purchase this book for $15.99 on the amazon website but it can also be purchased from audible as an audio book or an e-book and other websites like the Barnes and noble website. Much of Dr. Doudna’s work is published all over google. A quick search can find many of her experiments and experiments related to her research. Overall, this book was an interesting piece of literature and I believe it holds some of the most important and controversial scientific discoveries in our lifetime and maybe even in the history of human kind. We have the power to change our own evolution and the evolution of every living thing on the planet. This book explains how that became possible.
Doudna, J. A., & Sternberg, S. H. (2018). A crack in creation: gene editing and the unthinkable power to control evolution. Boston: Mariner Books.
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Popular Highlights in this book
A full 8 percent of the human genome—over 250 million letters of DNA—is a remnant of ancient retroviruses that infected ancestors of our species millennia ago.Highlighted by 1,136 Kindle readers- As long as the genetic code for a particular trait is known, scientists can use CRISPR to insert, edit, or delete the associated gene in virtually any living plant’s or animal’s genome.Highlighted by 1,096 Kindle readers
- The human genome comprises about 3.2 billion letters of DNA, with around 21,000 protein-coding genes.Highlighted by 1,096 Kindle readers
- Inspired in part by the uncanny ability of viruses to splice new genetic information into the DNA of bacterial cells, the pioneers of this early gene therapy realized they could use viruses to deliver therapeutic genes to humans.Highlighted by 877 Kindle readers
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Highly Recommend To All Readers
Highly thrilling and very readable, this book unravels the recent story of a powerful discovery in genetics and biotechnology. This book got me interested in genetics and is crucial to understanding where biotech is headed. The authors also take care to weigh and contrast the ethics of the CRISPR gene editing, which is just as essential as understanding the technology itself.
Top reviews from other countries
J EDSON
A Ciência dá um INIMAGINÁVEL PASSO - para o bem estar da Humanidade.
Reviewed in Brazil on April 25, 2022
José Macaya
El tema del libro, la manipulación genética para la cura de enfermedades, es apasionante.
Reviewed in Spain on July 16, 2021prabindh
Less on detail, more on ethical considerations
Reviewed in India on June 7, 2021