NOT that we’re looking to alarm you or anything but scientists have discovered that xenobots – synthetic lifeforms – have learned to reproduce.
According to New Scientist, “swarms of tiny living robots can self-replicate in a dish by pushing loose cells together.”
Ah, “tiny living robots.” You had me worried for a moment. I was imagining the Terminator. Sounds too small to worry about.
And you’re wearing a mask because?
Point taken. Anyway, what is a xenobot?
They are synthetic lifeforms first created last year from cells taken from the embryo of frogs. Under certain conditions these cells have formed small structures that can self-assemble, move in groups and even sense their environment.
Now scientists in America have discovered they can also self-replicate.
And this is news because?
Because no reproductive process is involved. This is the first time multicellular organisms have been found to self-replicate in a way that doesn’t involve growth on the organism’s own body. “This work shows there was a previously unknown way that life could self-replicate,” according to Professor Josh Bongard of the University of Vermont.
How does it work then?
It’s more of a piling-up process, Professor Bongard explains. The xenobots move around in a petri dish in a corkscrew pattern to start with. “And they crash into other loose cells, and sort of just smush.”
Is that a scientific term?
I wouldn’t bet on it. Professor Bongard says this is an example of “kinematic self-replication,” a process noted in molecules before, but not in organisms.
Over a few days one of these piles of xenobots can form a new moving cluster, a child xenobot.
Lovely, do they have a name for the child yet?
Don’t be facetious. As it is, the child xenobot isn’t strong enough to reproduce itself.
So, is this science with a purpose?
Well, that’s a very reductive notion of the worth of science but in this case there might be. According to Professor Bongard: “These are very small, biodegradable and biocompatible machines, and they’re perfectly happy in freshwater.” As a result in time they could be used to collect microplastics from waterways or maybe fix electrical circuits.
Ultimately, they could even help us create biobots from our own cells which could possibly be used in the body to remove the need for surgery.
That does sound pretty cool, right enough.
Indeed. Professor Mark Miodownik, the director of the Institute of Making at University College London, told the Guardian that this discovery was “amazing science and another step closer to animate materials”.
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