At the University of Vermont, scientists have tinkered with cells scraped from frogs’ embryos to make something that’s not a traditional robot but a “biological machine” – perhaps even a new life form.
The creation has been dubbed a “xenobot” because the cells used to make the living robots were taken from the African clawed frog, formally known as Xenopus laevis.
The scientists programmed the university’s “Deep Green” supercomputer with basic rules about how the frogs’ skin and heart cells behave, then told the machine to organize digital versions of a few hundred of the cells into life forms that could carry out simple tasks the researchers assigned, such as forward motion.
The computer assembled the cells randomly thousands of times. If a creation showed promise, the computer kept and refined it. After the algorithm’s hundredth run, the researchers chose the best candidate to be built and tested by Tufts University biologists.
A microsurgeon separated frog cells one from the other and cultured them. Then the living cells were connected following the blueprint designed by the computer.
The manufactured organisms, about four-hundredths of an inch in size, not only were able to move but spontaneously began working together to herd scattered pellets to a central point. Scientists also built xenobots with a pouch in the center that could carry objects.
Xenobots can heal themselves if cut; after about a week, they die and become dead skin cells.
The creators see their xenobots traveling through human arteries to scrape away plaque, deliver medications, or gather data for medical tests.
TRENDPOST: Xenobots’ parents have created not just tiny, living robots but a snapshot of a future in which synthetic biology will create larger, more complex life forms specifically designed to carry out more complex tasks. As the ability to create and control life advances, ethical questions will multiply faster than our ability to understand them.
