Joined: 6 Sep 2006 Age: 36 Gender: Female Posts: 7,716 Location: Moved on
14 Jan 2020, 8:10 pm
There's much more detail on the rest of the page, which I recommend reading.
Scientists use stem cells from frogs to build first living robots
Quote:
Be warned. If the rise of the robots comes to pass, the apocalypse may be a more squelchy affair than science fiction writers have prepared us for.
Researchers in the US have created the first living machines by assembling cells from African clawed frogs into tiny robots that move around under their own steam.
One of the most successful creations has two stumpy legs that propel it along on its “chest”. Another has a hole in the middle that researchers turned into a pouch so it could shimmy around with miniature payloads.
“These are entirely new lifeforms. They have never before existed on Earth,” said Michael Levin, the director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. “They are living, programmable organisms.”
Roboticists tend to favour metal and plastic for their strength and durability, but Levin and his colleagues see benefits in making robots from biological tissues. When damaged, living robots can heal their wounds, and once their task is done they fall apart, just as natural organisms decay when they die.
Joined: 26 Aug 2010 Age: 69 Gender: Male Posts: 34,150 Location: temperate zone
14 Jan 2020, 10:36 pm
I think that replicants had their actual nuclear DNA engineered in a lab.
These robots take existing cells, and apparently the scientists don't even mess with the frog DNA. They have their natural DNA but the scientist play lego bricks with the frog cells and reassemble the cells into micro machines. I think that's how it works.
Joined: 11 Jun 2013 Gender: Non-binary Posts: 26,635 Location: Australia
14 Jan 2020, 11:09 pm
smudge wrote:
There's much more detail on the rest of the page, which I recommend reading.
Scientists use stem cells from frogs to build first living robots
Quote:
Be warned. If the rise of the robots comes to pass, the apocalypse may be a more squelchy affair than science fiction writers have prepared us for.
Researchers in the US have created the first living machines by assembling cells from African clawed frogs into tiny robots that move around under their own steam.
One of the most successful creations has two stumpy legs that propel it along on its “chest”. Another has a hole in the middle that researchers turned into a pouch so it could shimmy around with miniature payloads.
“These are entirely new lifeforms. They have never before existed on Earth,” said Michael Levin, the director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. “They are living, programmable organisms.”
Roboticists tend to favour metal and plastic for their strength and durability, but Levin and his colleagues see benefits in making robots from biological tissues. When damaged, living robots can heal their wounds, and once their task is done they fall apart, just as natural organisms decay when they die.
Joined: 21 Feb 2011 Age: 56 Gender: Male Posts: 34,284
15 Jan 2020, 3:08 am
watching the video it just looks like undifferentiated embryonic stem cells attempting to reform cell-cell connections. However I am wondering if human embryonic stem cells could be applied as biological bandage tissue to wounds to result in instant healing?