The world’s first “living robots” are now capable of something that’s essential to the survival of any species: reproduction.
Known as Xenobots, the organisms use an entirely novel form of biological self-replication, according to new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study authors discovered that the machines can gather hundreds of single cells and assemble them into “baby” Xenobots. After a few days, the offspring evolve to look and move just like their parents.
The progeny can then repeat the process over and over again.
“People have thought for quite a long time that we’ve worked out all the ways that life can reproduce or replicate,” said study co-author Douglas Blackiston, the senior scientist at Tufts University, in a statement. “But this is something that’s never been observed before.”