Meet the xenobot: world's first living, self-healing robots created from frog stem cells

[brooklynite]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: CNN

(CNN)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.

Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the ability to develop into different cell types. The researchers scraped living stem cells from frog embryos, and left them to incubate. Then, the cells were cut and reshaped into specific "body forms" designed by a supercomputer -- forms "never seen in nature," according to a news release from the University of Vermont.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/13/us/living-robot-stem-cells-intl-hnk-scli-scn/index.html

[left-of-center2012]

1. Updated 10:57 PM ET, Tue January 14, 2020 ???

[Goonch]

2. Xenobots. The parent organism in red next to an offspring cell coloured green.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

3. Small question ... does the observation that they're small enough to

'travel inside human bodies' ... in some way actually tie into the actual PURPOSE of their development?

Also ... 'living robot' is a bit of an oxymoron I would think.

[paleotn]

4. The precursor of xenomorphs?

Sounds like Prometheus, Alien Covenant and the rest of the Alien franchise.

Interesting research, but still gives me the willies.

[Omaha Steve]

5. After a review by forum hosts....LOCKING

WAY over the 12 hour limit!!!