Page 11 - MidWeek - March 31, 2021

Clearly, they’re both incred- ibly hard. Doudna, who grew up in Hilo, was allowed to intuitively navigate into what
Comparing these two gi- ants is a rather silly exercise,
The Code Breaker is avail- able in hard cover, digital and audio formats. Being Serena is streaming on HBO Max.
a mother, but it’s about the giants that preceded her. It’s about her competition. And it’s about meeting the right people at the right time and collaboration. Doudna’s suc- cess depended not just on her brilliance and tenacity, but on the brilliance of those around
In the end, both stories are equally inspirational.
PHOTO COURTESY AP PHOTO/ANDY BROWNBILL
MARCH 31, 2021 MIDWEEK 9
Rotten
The Tales Of Two Super Women
BY CHRIS MCKINNEY
PAPAYAS
I’m currently consuming media about two very dif- ferent women on two very different platforms. I’m read- ing The Code Breaker, which is the story of Jennifer Doudna and her Nobel Prize-winning breakthroughs in gene editing while I’m watching Being Ser- ena, which is about Serena Wil- liams’ comeback to tennis after having a baby. I can’t help but compare in my head. What’s harder? Being a revolutionary biochemist or being an all-time great professional athlete?
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would become her life’s work. She went from wondering if chemistry was too hard for her at Pomona College to leading the scientific team that showed that a protein could be pro- grammed to cut and edit DNA.
Then she got pregnant and wrecked it all. I kid, but only kind of.
her. The fact that she had a child is mere- lyablipinthe book.
She didn’t need to constantly travel around the world, and she didn’t work alone. She led a lab. She managed a team. Tasks could be delegated.
the kind that my friends and I would participate in over beers. Both just made me think about motherhood and the gender disparities when it comes to the decision to have children. NFL legend Drew Brees just retired. His four adorable kids publicly an- nounced his retirement. Nev- er did having children threaten his career.
On the other hand, I’m pret- ty sure Williams was born with a tennis racket in her hand. An exaggeration, but she started when she was 4. Her fami- ly moved from Compton to West Palm Beach when she was 9 so that she and her sis- ter could attend a renowned tennis academy. She would go on to win 23 Grand Slam titles and become one of the great- est tennis players of all time.
Serena Williams
Jennifer Doudna
PHOTO COURTESY AP PHOTO/JEFF CHIU, POOL
Here’s the thing: The Code Break- er is not just about Doud- na, who’s also
Unlike The
Code Break-
er, Being Ser-
ena isn’t about
Williams’ his-
torical suc-
cesses. Instead, it asks wheth- er being a woman, having a child, and staying on top is humanly possible. In science, apparently it is. Doudna didn’t need to maintain world-class physicality to do her work. She just needed to continue to use her already world-class brain.
For Williams, the decision to have a child had much more severe ramifications. It’s not just what pregnancy can do to the body (incidentally, it almost killed her), but as an athlete, aging looms in a much more immediate fashion. Al- ready in her mid-30s, having a child undoubtedly threatened her career. I’m sure her daugh- ter will hear all about it when she’s really bad.
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