Xenobots
Less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide -- small enough to travel inside human bodies. They can walk and swim, survive for weeks without food, and work together in groups - and can now reproduce.
Looks like CNN and scientists at University of Vermont are joining the nanobot conspiracy theories…and upping the ante with reproduction, so they are self-replicating now? Ok.
World's first living robots can now reproduce, scientists say - By Katie Hunt, CNN Updated 2104 GMT (0504 HKT) November 29, 2021
The US scientists who created the first living robots say the life forms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce -- and in a way not seen in plants and animals.
Formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) from which it takes its name, xenobots are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide. The tiny blobs were first unveiled in 2020 after experiments showed that they could move, work together in groups and self-heal.
Now the scientists that developed them at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering said they have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction different from any animal or plant known to science.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/americas/xenobots-self-replicating-robots-scn/index.html
Meet the xenobot: world's first living, self-healing robots created from frog stem cells - By Jessie Yeung, CNN, Updated 10:57 PM ET, Tue January 14, 2020
Scientists have created the world's first living, self-healing robots using stem cells from frogs.
Named xenobots after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) from which they take their stem cells, the machines are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide -- small enough to travel inside human bodies. They can walk and swim, survive for weeks without food, and work together in groups.
These are "entirely new life-forms," said the University of Vermont, which conducted the research with Tufts University's Allen Discovery Center.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/13/us/living-robot-stem-cells-intl-hnk-scli-scn/index.html
‘Xenobots’ Could be Stage-1 of a Real Terminator-Like Robot
Brainiacs from Tufts University, the University of Vermont, and the Wyss Institute at Harvard have created something called a ‘Xenobot’ which is a programmable robot grown from stem cells. Think of it as the world’s first “living machine”.
https://www.thequint.com/tech-and-auto/tech-news/xenobot-what-it-is-and-how-was-it-made#read-more
Team Builds the First Living Robots - Tiny 'xenobots' assembled from cells promise advances from drug delivery to toxic waste clean-up
Now a team of scientists has repurposed living cells—scraped from frog embryos—and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These millimeter-wide "xenobots" can move toward a target, perhaps pick up a payload (like a medicine that needs to be carried to a specific place inside a patient)—and heal themselves after being cut.
"These are novel living machines," says Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont who co-led the new research. "They're neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It's a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism."
Many people worry about the implications of rapid technological change and complex biological manipulations. "That fear is not unreasonable," Levin says. "When we start to mess around with complex systems that we don't understand, we're going to get unintended consequences."
https://www.uvm.edu/news/story/team-builds-first-living-robots
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