A crack in creation: the new power to control evolution

Consider the fact that in 2015 there were almost 212 million cases of malaria worldwide, which led to around half a million deaths. Now imagine a world in which mosquitoes had lost the ability to carry the disease. Think about the millions of people worldwide affected by food insecurity and famine. Then picture a future in which staple crops are resistant to the worst diseases and blights, and can withstand the new pressures of climate change.

These alternative realities might seem like fantasy, but are actually not that far-fetched thanks to the Crispr–cas9 genome editing tool developed by Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues. A crack in creation is Doudna’s story of how she became involved in the research that led to Crispr’s development, and the explosion of the field since her team’s breakthrough paper was published just five years ago.