Scientists say the first ‘living’ robots are able to reproduce

The American scientists who created the first “living” robots say that life forms, known as xenobots They can now reproduce – and in a way not seen in plants and animals.

Made up of stem cells of African frog species (Xenopus laevis), from which it took its name, and xenobots Their width is less than a millimeter. The tiny pimples were first revealed in 2020, after experiments showed they can move and work together in groups and heal themselves.

Now, the scientists who developed it at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering say they have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction, unlike any animal or plant known to science.

“I was surprised by this,” said Michael Levine, professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, who co-led the new research.

Frogs usually reproduce in a certain way, but when you liberate [as células] From the rest of the fetus and giving them a chance to discover what it means to be in a new environment, they discover not only a new way of locomotion, but also, it seems, a new way of reproduction.”

Robot or living creature?

Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the ability to develop into different types of cells. to make xenobotsThe researchers took live stem cells from frog embryos and left them to incubate. There is no genetic manipulation.

said Josh Bongard, a University of Vermont professor of computational sciences and robotics specialist and lead author of the study.

In this way, it is a robot, but it is also clearly an organism made of non-GMO frog cells.

Bongard said he discovered that the xenobots, which were initially spherical in shape and consisted of about 3000 cells, could reproduce, but this rarely and only under specific conditions. You are xenobots It uses “kinetic reproduction” — a process known to occur at the molecular level but not previously seen at the level of whole cells or organisms, Bongard said.

With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), researchers have tested billions of body shapes to make xenobots The most effective in this type of replication.

The supercomputer created a C shape reminiscent of Pac-Man, a video game from the 80s. They found that he was able to find tiny stem cells in a petri dish, collect hundreds of them inside his mouth, and a few days later the bundle of cells became new. xenobots.

“Artificial intelligence has not programmed these machines the way we normally think about writing code. I built, sculpted and created this shape of Pac-Man,” said Bongard.

“A form, at its core, is software. Form affects how a file works xenobots You act to amplify this amazing process.”

You are xenobots They are very old technologies – think of a computer from the 1940s – and they still lack any practical application. However, this combination of molecular biology and artificial intelligence can be used for a number of tasks in the body and the environment, according to the researchers. This can include things like collecting microplastics from the oceans, examining the root system, and regenerative medicine.

While the possibility of biotech’s self-reproduction may raise concern, the researchers said that living machines are entirely contained in a lab and could easily become extinct, because they are biodegradable and regulated by ethical experts.

The research was funded in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a federal agency that oversees the development of technology for military use.

“A lot of things can be achieved if we take advantage of this kind of plasticity and the ability of cells to solve problems,” Bongard said.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PNAS on Monday (29).

Translated text. Read the original text In English.