Just 45 years back, the age of gene modification was born. Analysts could create glow-in-the-dark mice, farmyard animals producing drugs in their milk, and vitamin-enhanced rice that could prevent half of 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 nearly every organism having a degree of precision, ease and quickness that we could only imagine ten years back.

But could it be ethical to improve the genetic materials of organisms in a manner that might be passed on to future generations? If a person is suffering from a lethal hereditary disease, could it be a lot more unethical to deny them this program? Who controls the application of this technology, when it makes ‘biohacking’—perhaps of one’s very own genome—a genuine possibility?

Nessa Carey’s reserve is a thrilling and timely snapshot of the technology which will radically alter our futures.