The Biohacker Who Experimented on Himself Is Making DIY Mutant Frogs

Josiah Zayner cursed under his breath as blood pooled under the thin skin of his subject’s leg. He checked for vital signs: no breathing. “I think I might have got the vein on that one accidentally.”

Zayner, who’d just administered an experimental injection, has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from the University of Chicago, but to his patient such credentials were meaningless. The leg in question belonged to a Hyla cinerea, a small green tree frog not more than two inches long. The idea was to inject a genetic cocktail to make the frog’s muscles grow larger. A few hours later, the frog was back to its usually hoppy self, but it was touch-and-go for a while.