Picture this. You’re standing in a long queue, waiting to place an order. When you reach the counter, you say, “I’d like a pair of wings, please.” No, you aren’t at KFC, you are in the near future, at your local genome editing station, holding a pig.

Because who hasn’t been promised something “when pigs fly”?

The time to cash in on those promises may come sooner than you think, thanks to something called CRISPR, the newest kid on the genetic engineering block.

Only a couple of months ago, a scientist in China claimed that the first CRISPR edited babies had been born in the form of healthy twin baby girls. That the twins are CRISPR babies, was confirmed to be true on 21 January 2019.