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Part Robot, Part Frog: Xenobots Are the First Robots Made From Living Cells
Discover ^ | December 8, 2020 2:00 PM | Jonathon Keats|

Posted on 12/22/2020 9:56:53 AM PST by BenLurkin

The African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, typically lives in the streams and ponds of sub-Saharan Africa, scavenging for food that it rips apart with its feet. In January, researchers at the University of Vermont and Tufts University published a report that gave the amphibian a different lot in life. They harvested its embryonic skin and heart cells and reassembled the living matter into robotic devices — transforming Xenopus into xenobot.

They’re designed on a supercomputer...

There are no electronics involved. Behaviors are programmed entirely through the structural arrangement of the pulsating heart cells held in a matrix of rigid skin cells.

Although xenobots can’t yet do much more than crawl or swim, the researchers see great potential for them to aid in fields like medicine and environmental remediation. In the future, xenobots could be engineered to deliver drugs through the human body or to gather up microplastics in oceans, politely biodegrading when the job is done.

(Excerpt) Read more at discovermagazine.com ...


TOPICS: Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: xenobots

1 posted on 12/22/2020 9:56:53 AM PST by BenLurkin
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To: SunkenCiv

2 posted on 12/22/2020 9:57:40 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin; Army Air Corps

No good will come of this.


3 posted on 12/22/2020 9:57:46 AM PST by KC_Lion
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To: KC_Lion

4 posted on 12/22/2020 10:05:06 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

A French robot?


5 posted on 12/22/2020 10:06:07 AM PST by Daveinyork
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To: KC_Lion

Might not be so bad. So maybe your next order of frogs legs will have titanium bones.


6 posted on 12/22/2020 10:09:11 AM PST by LIConFem (I will no longer accept the things I cannot change. it's time to change the things I cannot acceptI)
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To: Daveinyork

7 posted on 12/22/2020 10:09:17 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

I seen this movie.

It doesn’t end well.....................


8 posted on 12/22/2020 10:12:53 AM PST by Red Badger ( “The goal of socialism is communism.”... Vladimir Lenin)
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To: KC_Lion

And they will vote Democrat !


9 posted on 12/22/2020 10:13:09 AM PST by Reily
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To: BenLurkin

10 posted on 12/22/2020 10:16:25 AM PST by Joe 6-pack
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To: BenLurkin

I’ve seen this movie. It doesn’t end well.


11 posted on 12/22/2020 10:20:14 AM PST by BBQToadRibs2
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To: BenLurkin

12 posted on 12/22/2020 10:32:06 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: BBQToadRibs2

No, it doesn’t. Does this mean the first experiments with the time displacement equipment will be conducted on frogs?


13 posted on 12/22/2020 10:32:32 AM PST by ThunderSleeps
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To: BenLurkin

Pepe approves of weaponized smartfrogs.


14 posted on 12/22/2020 10:39:41 AM PST by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: BenLurkin

Thanks for that.
You just proved the fact that there is a designer who created everything.....


15 posted on 12/22/2020 10:45:22 AM PST by Pez149
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To: BenLurkin

The very worst aspects of “Teminator” combined with the horrors of “ Species” and a dash of “The Wind and the Wuthering” (arrogant Mr Toad)


16 posted on 12/22/2020 10:52:26 AM PST by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: KC_Lion

I think that there was a movie about this...


17 posted on 12/22/2020 11:15:17 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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