Hacking the Code of Life How gene editing will rewrite our futures

Just 45 years ago the age of gene modification was born. Researchers could create glow-in-the-dark mice farmyard animals producing drugs in their milk and vitamin-enhanced rice that could prevent half a million people going blind every year. But now GM is rapidly being supplanted by a new system called CRISPR or gene editing. Using this approach scientists can manipulate the genes of almost any organism with a degree of precision ease and speed that we could only dream of ten years ago. But is it ethical to change the genetic material of organisms in a way that might be passed on to future generations? If a person is suffering from a lethal genetic disease is it even more unethical to deny them this option? Who controls the application of this technology when it makes biohacking - perhaps of one’s own genome - a real possibility? Nessa Carey’s book is a thrilling and timely snapshot of a technology that will radically alter our futures.