Fluorescent fish that glow near pollution. Robot-armoured beetles that military handlers can send on spy missions. Beloved pets resurrected from DNA. Scientists have already begun to create these high-tech hybrids to serve human whims and needs. What if a cow could be engineered to no longer feel pain – should we design a herd that would assuage guilt over eating meat?

Popular science writer Emily Anthes travels around the globe to see how humans are inventing the fauna of the future, from the Roslin Institute, the Scottish birthplace of Dolly the Sheep, where scientists are trying to clone an endangered mountain lion to a 'pharm' where chickens are modified to lay eggs laced with cancer-fighting drugs. Frankenstein’s Cat is an eye-opening exploration of weird science – and how we are playing god in the animal world.