Bethany is a bacterium, floating along and minding her own business. Vince, a destructive virus, comes along and starts attacking Bethany. Putting up a good fight, Bethany is able to fend off Vince. After she successfully incapacitates him, she decides to protect herself from Vince in case they cross paths in the future. She pulls out her camera and snaps a photo of her attacker. Next time she brushes by some unknown viruses, she'll whip out the picture to see if Vince is there. If she does happen to see Vince again, she'll have the upper hand and be prepared to easily fend him off.

Bethany's photograph - a reference to danger - is what CRISPR is. When a bacterium survives a viral attack, the bacterium actually saves bits of the virus's DNA within its own DNA. This acts as an immune response. In the future, the bacterium can more easily defend against similar viral attacks.

Scientists first became intrigued by this process in 2005, when they realized the implications of a bacterium being able to snip their own DNA and add in pieces of brand new DNA. If they could replicate this, it could mean more nutritious and longer lasting produce, mosquitos that don't carry disease, and even a human gene-pool devoid of genetic diseases.

Since 2005, researchers have broken down the individual elements that make CRISPR possible, and have created a process that allows them to recreate CRISPR in the lab. The first element is an enzyme called Cas9. Cas9 is the tool that actually cuts the DNA in preparation for adding in new genetic material. The second is a guide RNA. The gRNA acts as a DNA search function to find the desired location for the new genetic code to be added. The last element is the repair template, which is the new DNA sequence to be inserted into the site of the Cas9-broken DNA. Put simply, the process is as follows: