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transtwill's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism and Racial slurs
ccardon01's review
4.0
As a scientific outsider, Editing Humanity was an fascinating insight into the CRISPR revolution. Kevin Davies brings together a compelling story filled with the He Jiankui drama to the life changing impact that CRISPR will have on gene editing. Davies gives sufficient background on all of the topics covered to make this book easy to read for someone who does not have requisite genetic knowledge.
afreen7's review
5.0
[CRISPR} “is a remarkable technology with many great uses,” said Broad Institute director Eric Lander. “But if you are going to do anything as fateful as rewriting the germline, you’d better be able to tell me there is a strong reason to do it. And you’d better be able to say that society made a choice to do this—that unless there’s broad agreement, it is not going to happen."(it happened though)
Wow as someone in the field of genetics this book was just wow. I've always read about the technology of CRISPR but never in detail all the politics, the humans, and all the shenanigans going on behind the scene. It's all of the hijinks that go on in STEM academia but turned up to a 100. For a nonfiction science book this has all of the action and drama; renegade scientists, campaigners, patent lawsuits, authorship drama, and backbiting but also all of the genius discoveries, and wild innovations that leave you debating endlessly with yourself. CRISPR is such a technology that's both overhyped and underhyped, with major flaws as well as endless potential.
As someone who published articles, it disheartens me how many people get their discoveries 'scooped' from them just because they are smart but not shrewd enough or quick enough. or how some people have never been credited rightly for their major contributions, like Rosalind franklin for her DNA x-ray crystallography 'photograph 51', or Watson's sister, Elizabeth writing the famed report or for Crick's wife, Odile sketching the first DNA diagram.
Throughout the CRISPR and DNA journey, there were many such people snubbed by the Nobel prize, publishers, and the scientific community in general. , like Matthaei cracking the genetic code, Mojica and the repetitive sequences in the bacterial genome that kickstarted the CRISPR frenzy, Lederberg's wife Esther regarding horizontal gene transfer, Banfield who emailed Doudna about CRISPR, Lin Shuai Liang in Zhang's lab, Marraffini using CRISPR on mammalian cells and so many more.
There's also the issue of ethics, regulations differing within countries, and the double standards when it came to the USA and Europe vs the rest of the developing countries, especially Asia. Also how He Jiankui shouldn't have been the only person incriminated in his heinous experiments. There should have been an oversight and ethics committee involved especially since he was funded and worked at reputed institutions. The government and collaborators that condemned him when the world discovered his experiments should have stopped him much earlier and not waited to see if it was a success just for their selfish race.
I liked that this book didn't just focus on one pov, or one side of the story, and it also provided the scope of CRISPR beyond just medical. Like how most 'all-natural' foods are genetically modified at some point in history and CRISPR could be put to great use in the agriculture industry but is roadblocked by the stigma of GMOs.
Sometimes though I felt like the description of CRISPR became repetitive with analogies and metaphors used many times. I also couldn't keep track of so many names but thankfully there's an index.
Also as revolutionary a technology as CRISPR is, it's not always necessary especially in cases like embryo editing when there are more sound technologies like PGT available that could be improved upon just as much with fewer side effects. Like Lander says "If we truly care about preventing needless genetic disease, we should be empowering genetic diagnostics for families, not editing embryos". Because right now CRISPR technology is still chock full of risks and even when those risks are dealt with it's a slippery slope to designer babies. This is sad because it could really help those who are afflicted with hereditary genetic disorders who want to have children but are afraid of passing on such fatal and debilitating disorders to the next generation.
And then there's also the consequence of increasing stigma towards disabled individuals; like scientist Ethan Weiss, whose daughter has albinism said, "I did imagine that genetic engineering could someday help kids who were diagnosed right after birth but I focused instead on just moving on and supporting the child I had, and not the one I wished I had. The world will be less kind, less compassionate, less patient, when or if there are no more children like Ruthie."
But then again no technology is perfect and choices vary from person to person whether they'd have wanted the germline editing despite the risks and the ethical repercussions for the sake of a more simple life.
p.s in chapter 23 it says [...dressed in a t-shirt and torn genes Nathan Treff] which I don't know if it's done on purpose or an editing miss lol
Wow as someone in the field of genetics this book was just wow. I've always read about the technology of CRISPR but never in detail all the politics, the humans, and all the shenanigans going on behind the scene. It's all of the hijinks that go on in STEM academia but turned up to a 100. For a nonfiction science book this has all of the action and drama; renegade scientists, campaigners, patent lawsuits, authorship drama, and backbiting but also all of the genius discoveries, and wild innovations that leave you debating endlessly with yourself. CRISPR is such a technology that's both overhyped and underhyped, with major flaws as well as endless potential.
As someone who published articles, it disheartens me how many people get their discoveries 'scooped' from them just because they are smart but not shrewd enough or quick enough. or how some people have never been credited rightly for their major contributions, like Rosalind franklin for her DNA x-ray crystallography 'photograph 51', or Watson's sister, Elizabeth writing the famed report or for Crick's wife, Odile sketching the first DNA diagram.
Throughout the CRISPR and DNA journey, there were many such people snubbed by the Nobel prize, publishers, and the scientific community in general. , like Matthaei cracking the genetic code, Mojica and the repetitive sequences in the bacterial genome that kickstarted the CRISPR frenzy, Lederberg's wife Esther regarding horizontal gene transfer, Banfield who emailed Doudna about CRISPR, Lin Shuai Liang in Zhang's lab, Marraffini using CRISPR on mammalian cells and so many more.
There's also the issue of ethics, regulations differing within countries, and the double standards when it came to the USA and Europe vs the rest of the developing countries, especially Asia. Also how He Jiankui shouldn't have been the only person incriminated in his heinous experiments. There should have been an oversight and ethics committee involved especially since he was funded and worked at reputed institutions. The government and collaborators that condemned him when the world discovered his experiments should have stopped him much earlier and not waited to see if it was a success just for their selfish race.
I liked that this book didn't just focus on one pov, or one side of the story, and it also provided the scope of CRISPR beyond just medical. Like how most 'all-natural' foods are genetically modified at some point in history and CRISPR could be put to great use in the agriculture industry but is roadblocked by the stigma of GMOs.
Sometimes though I felt like the description of CRISPR became repetitive with analogies and metaphors used many times. I also couldn't keep track of so many names but thankfully there's an index.
Also as revolutionary a technology as CRISPR is, it's not always necessary especially in cases like embryo editing when there are more sound technologies like PGT available that could be improved upon just as much with fewer side effects. Like Lander says "If we truly care about preventing needless genetic disease, we should be empowering genetic diagnostics for families, not editing embryos". Because right now CRISPR technology is still chock full of risks and even when those risks are dealt with it's a slippery slope to designer babies. This is sad because it could really help those who are afflicted with hereditary genetic disorders who want to have children but are afraid of passing on such fatal and debilitating disorders to the next generation.
And then there's also the consequence of increasing stigma towards disabled individuals; like scientist Ethan Weiss, whose daughter has albinism said, "I did imagine that genetic engineering could someday help kids who were diagnosed right after birth but I focused instead on just moving on and supporting the child I had, and not the one I wished I had. The world will be less kind, less compassionate, less patient, when or if there are no more children like Ruthie."
But then again no technology is perfect and choices vary from person to person whether they'd have wanted the germline editing despite the risks and the ethical repercussions for the sake of a more simple life.
p.s in chapter 23 it says [...dressed in a t-shirt and torn genes Nathan Treff] which I don't know if it's done on purpose or an editing miss lol
elentarri's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is an interesting and thought provoking look at gene editing in general, CRISPR in particular. Davies covers both the history and future of gene editing and includes biographical details about the scientists involved in any research related to CRISPR. I much preferred the sections that provide detail on the technology (not detailed enough for my taste) and the current/future uses of such technology (again, more specifics would have been wonderful). The ethics sections didn't provide anything that hasn't been discussed elsewhere, but provides a decent overview for those not familiar with the subject.
In short, a nicely written overview of CRISPR technology - how it was developed, who made various incremental but important discoveries, how it works, its uses and hazards (so far) and the ethics of its use/misuse.
In short, a nicely written overview of CRISPR technology - how it was developed, who made various incremental but important discoveries, how it works, its uses and hazards (so far) and the ethics of its use/misuse.
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