The world of codes and code-breaking can push the envelope, and The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin is one example. With deep knowledge and skillful storytelling, Dunin and Schmeh capture the joy and power of codebreaking. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, she decided she would.

Also, that extraordinary word and number patterns in ancient Hebrew Bible texts have much in common with modern computer codes and can even predict the future (although as this was first published in 1997, that future is now long past). We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, learn and live, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation, and we pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging. Whether your kids want to read a mystery book about code breaking, or maybe an historic fiction book about how codes were used, or perhaps they want to try cracking some codes in a puzzle book, there is a book on this list to suit everyone.Code experts and enthusiasts Elonka Dunin and Klaus Schmeh patiently explain the basic types of codes and ciphers, and how to detect which scheme is being used. From Leonardo to Steve Jobs, from Benjamin Franklin to Albert Einstein, Isaacson has given us an unparalleled canon of work that chronicles how we have come to live the way we do. Dramatic, compelling and remarkably far-reaching, The Code Book will forever alter your view of history, what drives it and how private your last e-mail really was.

As you might guess, there is a hefty dose of coded symbols and imagery as Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and his sidekick Adso, investigate the suspicious death of a satirical illuminator.

A similar dilemma preoccupied Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann in their 2001 play Oxygen, which asked who should receive a “Retro-Nobel” for the discovery of the eponymous gas. Good for amateur cryptographers, or those who wish to have historical background as they proceed in a journey towards the more mathematical aspects of modern cryptology. Largely debunked on the world stage, you’ll still find some surprising coincidences and mystifying ‘codes’ explored here.

As I read the book I was also reading, in bed and on my Kindle, Sinclair McKay's intriguing and insightful book The Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The History of the Wartime Codebreaking Centre . Deftly written, conveying the history of CRISPR and also probing larger themes: the nature of discovery, the development of biotech, and the fine balance between competition and collaboration that drives many scientists.After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Believing its ciphers to be unbreakable, they failed to spot evidence of its weaknesses and vulnerability. The first edition was released in the UK in December 2020, with a new Expanded Edition (25% new content! He is a professor of history at Tulane and was CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time.