The artwork is gloriously retro, echoing the original Ladybird house style but containing completely up to date information.

Too important … What may happen thanks to Doudna’s [discovery] is dizzying … for her, this is the future of medicine. If she’s right, then Crispr is about to make our present healthcare concerns look surprisingly trivial

One of the architects of this miraculous biological technique … explains the science clearly and excitingly as a kind of globalist detective story

Probably the greatest biological breakthrough since that of Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin… We owe Doudna several times over – for her discovery, for her zeal to take it from the lab into the clinic, for her involvement in the ethical issues raised, for her public engagement work, and now for this book

An urgent plea from the celebrated biologist whose discovery enabled us to rewrite the code of life. The future is in our hands as never before, and this book explains the stakes like no other

Urgent, riveting and endlessly fascinating, this book is destined to become an instant classic. Read it if you want to understand our biological future

In this wonderful book … Doudna’s and Sternberg’s simple but compelling exploration of this hugely important subject offers and excellent overview of this startling and unprecedented discovery

An exhilarating and frightening roadmap to our future by one of the most pioneering women in science

Jennifer Doudna is the true pioneer who built the bridge between the basic science of CRISPR and its diverse applications. Now is the time to read about the revolution that could change our world

A scientific thriller and a gripping read by a brilliant scientist

One of the most monumental discoveries in biology

A detailed account of the story so far. It may well end up being compared with the book that inspired a 12-year-old Doudna in the first place: James Watson’s The Double Helix … Packed with amazing female scientists, it is thrilling, generous and no less personal … We need scientifically informed conversations about what we should do next with these powers, and Doudna’s book is a good place to begin

A welcome new contribution to the [gene editing] debate… She should be congratulated for being one of the very few scientists involved in a breakthrough to write a timely, popular personal account… Doudna’s style, more contemplative than Watson or Venter, is just as effective at describing the increasingly frantic pace of life in the lab, as researchers realise that epoch-making discoveries are in the offing. She tells the scientific back-story particularly well… The arguments are rehearsed with admirable clarity

[Lanier’s] argument…is a profound one… I heeded his plea and deleted my account

Incredibly accessible. The conversational tone makes for light reading, yet it’s also a hard-hitting and well-constructed polemic

[A] brief and lucid volume

A riveting, deeply reported reconstruction of a catastrophe

Adam Higginbotham's brilliantly well-written Midnight In Chernobyl draws on new sources and original research to illuminate the true story of one of history’s greatest technological failures - and, along with it, the bewildering reality of everyday life during the final years of the Soviet Union.

Higginbotham’s superb account of the April 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is one of those rare books about science and technology that read like a tension-filled thriller. Replete with vivid detail and sharply etched personalities, this narrative of astounding incompetence moves from mistake to mistake, miscalculation to miscalculation, as it builds to the inevitable, history-changing disaster.

Definitive.

A colourful, well-researched book.

Adam Higginbotham’s Midnight at Chernobyl is a superb account of the catastrophic accident that occurred in the No 4 reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power station in 1986. Higginbotham’s research is thorough and enlightening; much has emerged about what really happened following the fall of the Soviet Union. An experienced journalist, he makes the complex historical, political, technical and human aspects of this dramatic story intelligible. His book is a pleasure to read.

Here is a triumph of investigative reportage, exquisite science writing, and heart-pounding storytelling. With Midnight in Chernobyl, Adam Higginbotham gives us a glimpse of Armageddon, but carries it off with such narrative verve that he somehow makes it entertaining. One thing is assured: After reading this astonishing, terrifying book, you will never think of nuclear power in quite the same way again.

Written with authority, this superb book reads like a classic disaster story and reveals a Soviet empire on the brink....[A] vivid and exhaustive account.

Midnight in Chernobyl is top-notch historical narrative: a tense, fast-paced, engrossing, and revelatory product of more than a decade of research....a stunningly detailed account....For all its wealth of information, the work never becomes overwhelming or difficult to follow. Higginbotham humanizes the tale, maintaining a focus on the people involved and the choices, both heroic and not, they made in unimaginable circumstances. This is an essential human tale with global consequences.

The most comprehensive, most thoroughly detailed history yet to appear ... a compelling, panoramic account of the disaster set in its broader context.

Spellbinding ... profound ... an excellent, enthralling account of the disaster and its fallout.

Gripping... brilliantly dissected in this electrifying account. The power of Higginbotham's book is its layered detail and driving narrative, but also in the context.

The most frightening book you’ll read this year, or next... the story of humanity in both its best and worst iterations. Higginbotham has told it with a calm regard for the balance between history and journalism, momentousness and human simplicity. If it’s the most frightening book you’ll read this year, it is also one of the most uplifting.

Highly readable . . . Higginbotham [is] a skilled science writer. . . . Mr. Higginbotham’s book reflects extensive on-the-scene research. . . . and vividly describes the futile attempts of engineers to bring a runaway reactor under control.

In fascinating detail, Higginbotham chronicles how the drama played out, showing that Soviet hubris in part led to the accident and Soviet secrecy compounded it.

The book reads like an adventure novel, but it’s a richly researched non-fiction work by a brilliant storyteller. . . . Get and read this gripping account to understand why people are still so afraid of nuclear power.

Midnight in Chernobyl is a master class in reporting.