It turns out that the living robot 'Xenobot' leaves offspring in the form of Pac-Man
The living robot 'Xenobot ' reconstructed from the cells of the frog's lungs was announced in 2020 and attracted a great deal of attention. Although it is a robot, it is an organism and can move, but it has been newly found that it 'leaves offspring'.
Kinematic self-replication in reconfigurable organisms | PNAS
'Amazing science': researchers find xenobots can give rise to offspring | Science | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/nov/29/amazing-science-researchers-find-xenobots-can-give-rise-to-offspring
Xenobots: Team builds first living robots that can reproduce
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-11-xenobots-team-robots.html
Scientists Create Synthetic Organisms That Can Reproduce
https://futurism.com/scientists-synthetic-organisms-reproduce
In January 2020, a research group led by Josh Bongard, who is studying evolutionary robotics at the University of Vermont, and Michael Levin, a biologist at Tufts University, as a living robot reconstructed from Xenopus embryo cells. Announced Xenobot. Xenobot, which can walk autonomously and carry substances, is supposed to be used for transporting drugs to affected areas in the human body and removing waste products accumulated in blood vessels to prevent arteriosclerosis. It has been.
A 'living robot' made from frog stem cells will be developed, and it is also possible to carry substances and self-regenerate --GIGAZINE
Xenobot is made by assembling thousands of cells taken from the lungs of a frog as a synthetic organism of about 1 mm, and since it has no digestive organs or neurons, it collapses spontaneously in about 2 weeks after birth. According to Professor Bongard, Xenobot will not grow into a frog, will continue to maintain its original shape until the end, and will behave completely differently from a frog.
In a new study, Professor Bongard and colleagues report that Xenobot 'leaves offspring.' Humans, animals, and plants reproduce in various ways, such as asexual and sexual, and leave offspring, but the method by which Xenobot leaves offspring is not reproduction like humans, but strictly kinematic self-replication. What is called. Kinematic self-replication has previously been observed in molecules, and this is the first time it has been observed in organisms.
'Kinematic self-replication in molecules is undoubtedly important in the birth of life on Earth, but it is unclear if this method of replication had any role in the origin of life,' said Professor Bongard. increase.
Using supercomputers and AI, the research team investigated how the 'shape' of Xenobot affects the efficiency of replication. As a result of simulating various 'shapes', supercomputers have shown that C-shaped Xenobots like Pac-Man are the most efficient. You can check what the C-shaped Xenobot actually looks like from the following movie.
Xenobots: Building the First-Ever Self-Replicating Living Robots --YouTube
Based on the conclusion of the supercomputer, Xenobot has been cut into a 'C' shape.
Many Xenobots rotate and move around in stem cells.
As Xenobot moves around, the scattered stem cells form a mass at the notch ...
It grows big. It is said that a new Xenobot will be born from this, but it seems that the Xenobot as a child is a small and weak individual and does not have grandchildren.
Xenobot is in the early stages of research, and if you compare it to a computer, it is at the 'computer of the 1940s' level. At the time of writing the article, we have not yet developed a practical application, but this research that combines 'molecular biology' and 'artificial intelligence' is in various fields such as recovery of marine microplastics, root system research, and regenerative medicine. It can be used in.
Although the existence of self-replicating biotechnology is expected to be accompanied by various concerns, the research team found that Xenobot is biodegradable, does not leave the laboratory under the guidance of ethics experts, and is easily Explains that it will disappear.
Related Posts:
