'Living robots' created by American scientists have learned to reproduce - ForumDaily
The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.
Переклад цього матеріалу українською мовою з російської було автоматично здійснено сервісом Google Translate, без подальшого редагування тексту.
Bu məqalə Google Translate servisi vasitəsi ilə avtomatik olaraq rus dilindən azərbaycan dilinə tərcümə olunmuşdur. Bundan sonra mətn redaktə edilməmişdir.

The 'living robots' created by American scientists have learned to reproduce

US scientists who created the first living robots say life forms known as xenobots can now reproduce in a way that plants and animals cannot. The publication told in more detail CNN.

Photo: Shutterstock

Formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), xenobots are less than a millimeter wide. The tiny droplets were first discovered in 2020. Experiments have shown that they can move, work together in groups, and self-repair.

Now scientists at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and the Wyss Institute of Biological Engineering at Harvard University who developed them have claimed that they have discovered a completely new form of biological reproduction, unlike any animal or plant known to science.

“I was amazed,” said Michael Levin, professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, who was one of the lead authors of the new study. “Frogs have a way of reproducing that they usually use, but when we freed the cells from the rest of the embryo and gave them a chance to figure out how to live in a new environment, they not only found a new way to move, but also apparently came up with a new one.” method of reproduction."

Robot or organism

Stem cells are unspecialized cells that can develop into different types of cells. To create the xenobots, the researchers scraped living stem cells from frog embryos and left them to incubate. There is no gene manipulation here.

On the subject: The pace of development of artificial intelligence frightens even scientists: how smart robots threaten humanity

“Most people think of robots as being made of metals and ceramics, but it's less about what the robot is made of and more about what it does,” said Josh Bongard, a professor of computer science and robotics, an expert at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study. . “So it is a robot, but it is also clearly an organism made from a non-genetically modified frog cell.”

Bongard said they discovered that the xenobots, which were originally spherical and made up of about 3000 cells, could reproduce. But this happened rarely and only under certain circumstances. According to Bongard, the xenobots used "kinetic replication," a process that is known to occur at the molecular level but has never before been observed at the scale of entire cells or organisms.

Then, using artificial intelligence, the researchers tested billions of body shapes to make xenobots more efficient at this type of replication. The supercomputer has received a C-shape, reminiscent of Pac-Man. They found that he could find tiny stem cells in a Petri dish, collect hundreds of them, and after a few days, a bundle of cells turned into new xenobots.

“The AI ​​did not program these machines in the way we typically think of writing code. He shaped, sculpted and came up with the form,” Bongard said. — A form is, essentially, a program. The shape influences the behavior of the xenobots to enhance this incredibly amazing process.”

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York.

Xenobots are a very early technology and have no practical application yet. However, according to the researchers, this combination of molecular biology and artificial intelligence can potentially be used to solve a variety of problems related to the body and the environment. This could include things like collecting microplastics in the oceans, checking the root system, and regenerative medicine.

While the prospect of self-replicating biotechnology may be troubling, the researchers said the living machines were completely contained in the laboratory and could be easily "killed" because they are biodegradable and the process is regulated by ethics experts.

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

“There are a lot of things that are possible if we take advantage of this plasticity and problem-solving ability of cells,” Bongard said.

Read also on ForumDaily:

They annoy you, but they could bring money: how to make money on spam calls

The pace of development of artificial intelligence frightens even scientists: how smart robots threaten humanity

Ten most underrated sights in the USA

Greetings from the Beyond: How Digitally Revitalizing the Dead Can Turn Our World

Robots Educational program reproduction
Subscribe to ForumDaily on Google News

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis. 



 
1072 requests in 1,273 seconds.