The first living robot was born: generated from frog cells, designed by supercomputers, foreign media: creepy

Yuyang Thirteen from Aofei Temple
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The world's first living robot made of cells has been born.

It is not a hypothesis or science fiction, but real scientific research published in top journals.

It is not made of metal or plastic, but is recombined from frog epidermal cells and heart cells.

This is the amazing research recently published in the top journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), from a team from the University of Vermont and Tufts University.

Joshua Bongard, corresponding author of the paper, said:

They are neither conventional robots nor known animal species. They are living, programmable organisms .

Co-author Michael Levin also said:

This is a completely new life form . It has never existed on Earth before.

These robots are named Xenobots .

Researchers believe that its ability to move in aqueous media shows unlimited possibilities in the future: cleaning up microplastic pollution in the ocean, serving as a biodegradable drug delivery robot, and so on.

But when it was shown to the public, it immediately caused panic among many people.

Yes, it has the flavor of the sci-fi movies "Alien" and "Alien Awakening". Netizens said: I am scared to death.

The foreign media "Wired" used four words to describe it: creepy .

What exactly is a living robot?

Xenobots: The first living robots

This "alien robot" called Xenobot is less than 1 mm long and is a combination of African clawed frog heart cells (contractile cells) and epidermal cells (passive cells) .

The basis for the combination is a model designed by Deep Green, a supercomputer cluster at the University of Vermont.

The researchers ran an evolutionary algorithm on the cluster, which has the computing power of 20,000 laptops.

Through repeated experiments, models with poor performance are eliminated in a manner similar to natural selection.

The code is open source, see the address at the end of the article

Both cells were derived by researchers from Xenopus frog embryonic stem cells .

The researchers first cut open the embryonic cells.

The cells were cut into two parts and cultured separately.

Then slowly rebuild the two.

Finally, the reshaped cell is "sculpted" using tweezers and electrodes according to the design simulated by the supercomputer.

The reshaped cells have different shapes, some are wedge-shaped and some are arched.

In the picture below, the green part at the top is the passive cell , and the alternating red and green part at the bottom is the active cell .

△ Green is epidermal cells, red is heart cells

Xenobots can move in aqueous media using contractions generated by heart cells.

△ Adjusted to 8x speed

Not only can it move in a straight line, it can also go in circles.

Unlike robots made of metal or plastic, Xenobot is completely biodegradable.

Moreover, it has the ability to self-repair.

Joshua Bongard, corresponding author of the paper, said:

We cut the robot in half, and it was able to not only stitch itself back together, but also continue to move.

Interestingly, if you flip the robot over, it will turn over like a turtle on its back and lose the ability to move.

Computer + biology, cross-border cooperation

The research was led by a team led by Joshua Banga, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Vermont.

The first author of the paper is Sam Kligman, a doctoral student at the University of Vermont who is working on evolutionary robotics.

△ Sam Kriegman

The corresponding author, Professor Joshua Banga, received his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich and is currently a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Vermont and director of the Morphological Evolution and Cognition Laboratory. His research focuses on evolutionary robotics, evolutionary computation, and physical simulation.

△ Josh Bongard

The work of assembling the robot was mainly completed by the team of Michael Levin, a professor in the Department of Biology at Tufts University.

△ Michael Levin

Alien awakening?

Researchers believe that the characteristics of Xenobots show unlimited possibilities in the future. They can be used to clean up microplastic pollution in the ocean, locate and digest toxic substances, or enter human blood vessels to precisely deliver drugs and remove plaques on arterial walls.

But perhaps, such an "alien" robot will remind you of the science fiction movie "Alien": a single cell can destroy the world.

Some netizens have expressed shock:

Sam Kriegman, the paper's first author, acknowledges that the research raises new ethical questions: future variants of these robots may have neural systems and cognitive abilities.

I think it’s important that this research is public so that society can discuss it and policymakers can develop the best course of action.

Michael Levin, another author of the paper and a professor at Tufts University, also pointed out that this fear is not unreasonable. But he believes that their work is to help people better understand such systems.

This research is a direct contribution to exactly what people are concerned about.

What do you think?

Portal

Paper address:
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/01/07/1910837117

Github project:
https://github.com/skriegman/reconfigurable_organisms

Reference Links:

https://www.wired.com/story/xenobot/

https://www.inverse.com/article/62220-scientists-create-living-machine

https://www.cnet.com/news/tiny-living-robots-made-from-frog-cells-could-soon-swim-inside-your-body/#ftag=CADf328eec

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/13/scientists-use-stem-cells-from-frogs-to-build-first-living-robots?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1578950205

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