Toaster—bathtub. Titanic—
This year you can add “DIY—gene therapy” to the list. Josiah Zayner did it on video in August, injecting himself with a syringe full of the DNA-slashing chemicals known as CRISPR, in a blend he concocted himself to strengthen his muscles. Zayner, who operates an online shop for biohackers called (what else?) The Odin, seemed to be vying for either a role on Jackass or a Darwin Award. In all likelihood, his formula wasn’t strong enough to do much. The danger, though, is that other people could follow suit. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved three life-saving (and immensely expensive) gene therapies for cancer and blindness in 2017, but it says that selling DIY gene therapies is illegal. Since Zayner doesn’t actually sell those formulations, he says he’s in the clear, but he also argues that people should be free to alter their own DNA if they want to.
