The world’s first living robot named Xenobots have been unveiled by scientists in the US. It is reported to be reproductive in an unusual way not seen in plants and animals.
In 2020, the tiny organism was invented following experiments from scientists at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biological Inspired Engineering which revealed the cells could move and survive together as a group as well as self-heal.
The xenobots which are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) in size are formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog(Xenopus laevis) – from where its name originated.
Michael Levin, a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Centre at Tufts University expressed that he was surprised at the outcome of the research. He stated that frogs have a way of reproducing but when they are separated from the embryo, not only do they find a new way to move, but also reproduce.
In another report, Josh Bongard, a computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont disclosed that robots are made not only from metals and ceramics as it is widely known, but from other substances. He expressed further that it doesn’t matter what a robot is made of, what is important is what it does, and the action it performs on people’s behalf.
Bongard noted that to make the xenobots, scientists scrapped living stem cells from frog embryos and left them to incubate.
