CRISPR ascends to Nobel

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna (first women to win prizes in science together) for Crispr genome editing. It was both a stunning choice (as a DNA-altering tool, Crispr has only been around for 8 years) and a completely expected one. Crispr has completely revolutionized biological research since its arrival in 2012 ; scientists have since published more than 300,000 studies using the tool to manipulate the genomes of organisms across every kingdom. It’s cheap, fast, and easy enough for almost anyone to use.