Tiny robots made from frog cells are an ‘entirely new life form’
Neither traditional robot nor known animal species, these critters are living machines with vast potential use
The world’s first living robots have been built using stem cells from frog embryos, in a strange machine-animal hybrid that scientists say is an “entirely new life form”.
Dubbed “xenobots” because they are constructed of biological material taken from the Xenopus laevis frog, the little bots are the first to be constructed from living cells.
Researchers are hopeful they could be programmed to move through arteries scraping away plaque, or swim through oceans removing toxic microplastic. And because they are alive, they can replicate and repair themselves if damaged or torn...