Team builds first living robots that can reproduce

An AI-designed, Pac-Man-shaped “parent” organism (in red) beside stem cells that have been compressed into a ball—the “offspring” (green). Credit: Douglas Blackiston and Sam Kriegman

SCIENTISTS AT UVM, TUFTS, AND HARVARD DISCOVERED A NEW FORM OF BIOLOGICAL REPRODUCTION—AND CREATED SELF-REPLICATING LIVING ROBOTS. MADE FROM FROG CELLS, THESE COMPUTER-DESIGNED ORGANISMS GATHER SINGLE CELLS INSIDE A PAC-MAN-SHAPED “MOUTH”—AND RELEASE XENOBOT “BABIES” THAT LOOK AND MOVE LIKE THEMSELVES. THEN THE OFFSPRING GO AND DO THE SAME—OVER AND OVER. Credit: Editing by Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist & Cody Silfies; footage by Douglas Blackiston & Sam Kriegman