JANUARY 20, 2020
Not bot, not beast: Scientists create first ever living, programmable organism
by Simon Coghlan and Kobi Leins, The Conversation
Nanobots are tiny robots that carry out specific tasks. In medicine, they can be used for targeted drug delivery. Credit: shutterstock
A remarkable combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and biology has produced the world’s first “living robots”.
This week, a research team of roboticists and scientists published their recipe for making a new lifeform called xenobots from stem cells. The term “xeno” comes from the frog cells (Xenopus laevis) used to make them.
One of the researchers described the creation as “neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal”, but a “new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism”.
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https://phys.org/news/2020-01-bot-beast-scientists-programmable.html