What has DNA done for me lately?

For this OLLI class, we will read and discuss The Double Helix by James Watson and The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson.

The Double Helix is Watson’s personal account of how he and Francis Crick discovered the double-helical structure of DNA, with crucial data from Rosalind Franklin that was provided without her knowledge or consent. It’s a fascinating read: clear, absorbing and informative, but also gossipy, opinionated, and self-serving.

The Code Breaker is the newest biography by Walter Isaacson, the Pulitzer Prize winning author who profiles geniuses (Einstein, da Vinci, Ben Franklin, Steve Jobs) who change the world. This one tells the story of DNA researcher and Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and the development of CRISPR, a powerful tool capable of fixing “broken” genes and even “improving” normal genes!