World’s First Living Robots Assembled from Frog Stem Cells
“These are entirely new lifeforms. They have never before existed on Earth,” Michael Levin, the director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, tells The Guardian. “They are living, programmable organisms.” Levin and other researchers in the US have created the first-ever living machines: robots composed of biological tissue, assembled from African clawed frog (xenopus laevis) stem cells and designed on a super-computer. Less than 1mm long these organisms, called “xenobots,” propel themselves until their energy reserves deplete (roughly one week to 10 days). The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funds this project, and the implications certainly bring up many questions regarding ethics. Read more at The Guardian.
Via theguardian.com link opens in a new window
