The Nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to two scientists who pioneered a tool to edit genomes.
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna invented the Crispr-Cas9 tool which can modify the DNA of plants, animals and microorganisms with high precision.
The new technology has already been used in a variety of fields: doctors are testing it as a cure for genetic disorders, agricultural scientists have used it to create new crops and there’s even talk of using it to bring back species from extinction.