Walter Isaacson on CRISPR, Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and More! | The Tim Ferriss Show

Walter Isaacson returns to discuss his book 'The Code Breaker,' centered on Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna and the invention of CRISPR gene editing. He explains how a basic-science curiosity about how bacteria fight viruses became a tool to edit human genes, with the power to cure diseases like sickle cell anemia and fight pandemics. The conversation explores the profound moral questions raised by gene editing, including designer babies, bioweapons, and whether the rich could buy better genes. Isaacson frames CRISPR as the third great innovation revolution, following the atom and the bit, and argues the molecule is becoming the new microchip. He weaves in lessons on curiosity, basic science, competition, and Ada Lovelace's vision of augmented over artificial intelligence.

• CRISPR can edit human genes to remove diseases like sickle cell anemia, Huntington's, and cystic fibrosis, and can be applied to embryos to create what are sometimes called designer babies.
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• Two years ago a scientist in China used CRISPR, in an unauthorized way, to edit the embryos of twin girls to remove the receptor that allows the virus causing AIDS.
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• A woman named Victoria Gray in Mississippi was cured of sickle cell anemia using CRISPR, the first such cure.
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• Isaacson frames three great innovation revolutions built on fundamental kernels: the atom (first half of the 20th century), the bit (digital revolution), and now the gene.
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• Doudna at Berkeley and Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute raced for six months to prove CRISPR works in human cells; Zhang published in January 2013 about two weeks before Doudna, sparking an ongoing patent battle.
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• A new type of vaccine using RNA tells our own cells to build antigens that fight a virus, marking a quantum leap from the rudimentary vaccination methods of 1918.
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• Isaacson calls gene editing the most important invention of our time, comparing it to Prometheus snatching fire from the gods.
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• Isaacson abandoned a planned biography of Louis Armstrong because, despite exhaustive research, he could not crack who Armstrong really was.
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• Isaacson also set aside a full biography of Ada Lovelace, who conceived the computer algorithm in the 1840s-50s, using her instead as the framing device for 'The Innovators.'
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• James Watson's book 'The Double Helix,' left on the bed by their fathers, inspired both Isaacson and Jennifer Doudna as children.
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• Doudna's high school guidance counselor told her girls don't become scientists, which made her determined to become one.
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• Doudna had a nightmare in which a man wanting to understand CRISPR turned out to be Adolf Hitler, crystallizing her fears about misuse.
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• Vladimir Putin spoke about a year prior of creating super soldiers stronger and resistant to radiation for fighting wars.
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• The Belgian Blue cattle breed and bully whippet dogs show dramatic increased muscle mass via myostatin suppression, a gene easily knocked out with CRISPR.
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• Austin biohacker Josiah Zayner injected himself with a CRISPR myostatin treatment on a live stream, though it did not work.
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• Ada Lovelace argued machines could process anything notatable in symbols but never originate thought, championing augmented intelligence over artificial intelligence.
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• Isaacson personally edited the genes of a human cell at Doudna's Berkeley lab, then flushed it down a drain with chlorine.
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