What are the lines and who draws them?: The CRISPR-Cas9 story

It was 2020. I was wrapping up grade nine science with a solid 60 per cent, hoping that if anyone saw my failed tests in the recycling bin, it would contribute to an air of mystery about me. This reason was preferable to the truth, which was that I was sick and I had been for a while. I didn’t like many subjects, least of all science, with its academic rigour and air of superiority. I felt that science was a body of knowledge sealed behind textbooks for those people who were suited to learn. It was for the people who understood pharmacy through reactions; physiology through diagrams; and who are essentially healers armed with multi-coloured highlighters. 

In the same year, biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna were studying bacterial immune systems. Bacteria defend themselves from invading viruses differently than humans. After an infection, bacteria store chunks of invading viral genetic material within their DNA for later reference, like a molecular ‘Wanted’ poster for future viral attacks. These bacteria store what they learned from the viruses in a section called the clustered...