Michael Specter’s audiobook, “Higher Animals: Vaccines, Synthetic Biology and the Future of Life,’’ was published in March by Pushkin Industries. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1998. He is also a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab. Specter’s many science pieces include articles about agricultural biotechnology, avian influenza, synthetic biology, geoengineering, CRISPR, and the uses of gene drive technology. His profile subjects include: Anthony S. Fauci,  Peter Singer,  Dr. Oz, and Richard Branson.  His 2009 book “Denialism,’’ won the Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking. Specter came to The New Yorker from The New York Times, where he was based in Rome. From  1995 to 1998 he served as co-chief of The Times Moscow Bureau. Previously, he had been New York Bureau Chief of The Washington Post.