Quotes from Walter Isaacson

And the Scripture assures me that at the last day we shall not be examined by what we thought, but what we did . . 

One moral issue that continues to loom large for her is inequality, especially if the wealthy are able to buy genetic enhancements for their children. "We could create a gene gap that would get wider with each new generation," she says. "If you think we face inequalities now, imagine what it would be like if society became genetically tiered along economic lines and we transcribed our financial inequality into our genetic code.

medical indicators, monitor our health conditions on our phones, and share the data with doctors and researchers. Doudna added that the pandemic had accelerated the convergence of science with other fields. "The engagement of non-scientists in our work will help achieve an incredibly interesting biotechnology revolution," she predicted. This was molecular biology's moment.

One evening at a dinner, Murray's wife asked him why he remained so cheerful given the depravity of the world. "We must remember that this is a very small star," he responded, "and probably some of the larger and more important stars may be very virtuous and happy.

The governor of Pennsylvania was among the enthusiastic, and he offered Franklin what could have been a lucrative patent. "But I declined it," Franklin noted in his autobiography. "As we enjoy great advantages from the invention of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously." It was a noble and sincere sentiment.

Lost time is never found again.

Talmud brought him science books, including a popular illustrated series called People's Books on Natural Science, "a work which I read with breathless attention," said Einstein.

The gene-editing tool that Doudna and others developed in 2012 is based on a virus-fighting trick used by bacteria, which have been battling viruses for more than a billion years. In their DNA, bacteria develop clustered repeated sequences, known as CRISPRs, that can remember and then destroy viruses that attack them.

We scientists in particular must foster internationalism," he said. "Unfortunately, we have had to suffer serious disappointments even among scientists in this regard."41

We now have the power to control our genetic future, which is awesome and terrifying.

What made the single-guide system particularly significant—from both a scientific and an intellectual property standpoint—was that it was an actual human-made invention, not merely a discovery of a natural phenomenon.

A person "at rest" on the equator is actually spinning with the earth's rotation at 1,040 miles per hour and orbiting with the earth around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour.

So as he grew old, he was not only respected and revered by his colleagues, he was loved.

In fact, it was specifically for discovering the law of the photoelectric effect that Einstein would win his only Nobel Prize.

There never was a good war or a bad peace."4

there was an outbreak in China of a virus that caused a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The only salvation for civilization and the human race lies in the creation of world government," he said. "As long as sovereign states continue to have armaments and armaments secrets, new world wars will be inevitable."2 As

A democracy," Kennan wrote in a note to himself, "is severely restricted in its use of armed forces as a weapon of peacetime foreign policy.

He knew how to be impolite without being rude.

At the end of the 1940s, when it was becoming clear to him that the effort to control nuclear weaponry would fail, Einstein was asked what the next war would look like. "I do not know how the Third World War will be fought," he answered, "but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth—rocks."20

His life was a constant quest for unifying theories.

my relationship with the Jewish people became my strongest human tie once I achieved complete clarity about our precarious position among the nations of the world.

The history of this nation up through the Civil War shows how difficult the establishment of a federal authority can be when there are profound differences in the values of the societies it attempts to integrate."3 Oppenheimer thus became the first of many postwar realists to disparage Einstein for being allegedly too idealistic.

We must remember that this is a very small star," he responded, "and probably some of the larger and more important stars may be very virtuous and happy."73