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Biotech Science

Scientists Create 'Living' Machines That Eat, Grow, and Evolve (thenextweb.com) 107

Posted by EditorDavid from the manufacturing-machines dept.
elainerd (Slashdot reader #94,528) shares an article from The Next Web: Scientists from Cornell University have successfully constructed DNA-based machines with incredibly life-like capabilities. These human-engineered organic machines are capable of locomotion, consuming resources for energy, growing and decaying, and evolving. Eventually they die.

That sure sounds a lot like life, but Dan Luo, professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell, who worked on the research, says otherwise. He told The Stanford Chronicle, "We are introducing a brand-new, lifelike material concept powered by its very own artificial metabolism. We are not making something that's alive, but we are creating materials that are much more lifelike than have ever been seen before." Just how lifelike? According to the research they're on par with biologically complex organisms such as mold.... "Dynamic biomaterials powered by artificial metabolism could provide a previously unexplored route to realize 'artificial' biological systems with regenerating and self-sustaining characteristics."

Basically, the Cornell team grew their own robots using a DNA-based bio-material, observed them metabolizing resources for energy, watched as they decayed and grew, and then programmed them to race against each other... Lead author on the team's paper, Shogo Hamada, told The Stanford Chronicle that "ultimately, the system may lead to lifelike self-reproducing machines."
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Scientists Create 'Living' Machines That Eat, Grow, and Evolve More

Scientists Create 'Living' Machines That Eat, Grow, and Evolve

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  • The beginning of the end ? (Score:3)

    by Selur ( 2745445 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @06:45AM (#58470358)

    'Cornell scientists create ‘living’ machines that eat, grow, and evolve'
    this kind of gives me the creeps,..

    • For the most part -- VR in Disclosure didn't take off but this is beginning to look like Prey.

  • What... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 22, 2019 @06:47AM (#58470362)

    What a great idea! Building autonomous machines that compete with the very building blocks of our essence, and not being even slightly sure how they work...

    What are they doing this for? Nobody is sure...

    What could possibly go wrong?

    • Re:What... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Namarrgon ( 105036 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @08:34AM (#58470672) Homepage

      Where did you get the idea that the scientists don't know how this works? TFA explains the process concisely. DNA self-assembly is well understood, and even their "races" are merely growth directed by the artificial flow of raw materials in solution.

      These molecular chains do not reproduce, cannot "move" or "eat" or grow without assistance from external supply, and meet nobody's definition of life. They're as likely to "go wrong" as growing simple salt crystals in a cup of water. But they are interesting from a more nano-mechanical point of view, and these techniques could well prove to be useful foundations for more practical applications.

      • They're as likely to "go wrong" as growing simple salt crystals in a cup of water.

        Hmmm, that's what God said.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • LOL, while you are absolutely 100% correct, the irony of this statement makes me laugh:

        These molecular chains do not reproduce, cannot "move" or "eat" or grow without assistance from external supply, and meet nobody's definition of life.

        Doesn't that sound suspiciously like how scientists theorize life evolved on this planet?

        There is clearly no immediate threat. You pointed out all of the weaknesses such an organism would have, and as such, it clearly can not compete with more fully evolved biological systems... yet. ;)

    • What could possibly go wrong?

      Not much, since these machines lack a critical life capability: reproduction.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Ultra7 ( 2746835 )
        But life, uh, finds a way...

        • But life, uh, finds a way...

          1. This isn't "life".
          2. Life "finds a way" via evolution ... which requires reproduction.

          Fear that these machines may go rogue makes as much sense as worrying that by tinkering in your garage you may accidentally create a motorcycle that will escape and reproduce in the wild.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by umghhh ( 965931 )
        it is just a first step. We get there eventually. Whether we will get lots of benefits out of it is another story.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by umghhh ( 965931 )
      Arriving at just another bottleneck that civilizations have to go through. We already have nuclear holocaust bottleneck. On biological front we are quite advanced I think. Our interconnected systems are more and more fragile on global scale to carrington like event. This does not have to go wrong. It very well may and as this is new there is nothing that can kill it. BTW how did they get rid of the problem in Interstellar and what was it originally?
      I guess we will proceed with this research. I am a lot mor
    • They are doing it for clout, fame, and money. We all know why scientists are trying so hard to push the envelope these days, and it's not for the good of humanity.

  • I imagine that they have to say artificial, robots, and biomaterial. The very second anyone outside the lab formalizes that these are new lifeforms the unfortunate authors will be slapped with the force of a hundred ethics boards. And that shit takes forever to settle.

    Really cool project though.

  • Af first everything is great (Score:5, Funny)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @07:56AM (#58470534)

    then come the Paternity suits, and health insurance coverage and having to pay for 5 years of college.

    • Not only that, but just wait until the machines don't get work done because that can't decide on dinner.

      "I want pizza."

      "I want Chinese."

      "We had Chines last week. Pizza, pizza."

      "Chinese"

      "Pizza."

  • It seems to behave like a warm blooded animal. Monitors its battery temperature. Turns on A/C or heater as needed, using the energy it has stored to maintain the temperature at the acceptable range. It has some primitive ability to move small distances without any driver in drive ways and parking lots. There are robotic creepy snake like thing that can plug it in for charging.

    It is capable of evoking intense emotional response on others who would take care of it very well, like babies or pets. And also ca

    • It doesn't respond to stimulus on its own. It doesn't drive away from fire, or seek cover from hail. Those would be cool mods, though.

  • Grey Goo (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Space ( 13455 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @08:44AM (#58470704) Homepage

    Do you "want" grey goo? This is how you get grey goo.

  • BlackMirror (Score:4, Interesting)

    by HangingChad ( 677530 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @08:47AM (#58470714) Homepage
    I'm seeing a BlackMirror episode IRL.
  • Hey Dave, CO2! CO2 fire extinguishers, Dave!

  • Eventually they die. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Eventually they die.

    Engineered with a four year life span?

  • Nanoengineering Advance (Score:4, Interesting)

    by resistant ( 221968 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @09:29AM (#58470904) Homepage Journal

    As a reasonably educated layman, the main value I see in this sort of research is with potentially bypassing the complexity of naturally evolved biological entities -- bacteria, fungi, and so forth -- in favor of a careful, step-by-step approach to building useful functionality from relative simplicity. Yes, the resultant artificially "evolved" biological entities almost certainly will lack the robustness and subtle adaptability of naturally evolved life forms, but presumably researchers can in time develop special-purpose, artificial pseudo-life forms that, for example, systematically crawl into every crack and corner of a defined space such as a residence or an office building and fill up those cracks and corners with a lightweight but durable matrix that prevents unwanted insect or rodent infestations as well as the kind of widespread fungal growths -- think black mold [cdc.gov] -- that can cause serious health problems. General contractors define the paths for these artificial pseudo-life forms by spraying special chemical trails and tailored microorganism food edible only to the artificial microorganisms. I suppose contractors also can lay down nutrient drips alongside ordinary wiring and piping to focal points for the long-term care and feeding of these pseudo-life microorganisms.

    These future artificial microorganisms cannot -- out of simple scientific ignorance or otherwise by cautious design -- begin to compete in the wild with the ravenous, ever-evolving fungi and bacteria of the natural world, but they can thrive in limited environments useful to humans. I'm thinking in particular of the exciting possibility of artificial biofilms that block the growth of drug-resistant fungi like Candida auris [cdc.gov] and greatly reduce the persistence of deadly bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [cdc.gov] and Clostridium difficile [nih.gov] across innumerable hospital surfaces that often are difficult to clean effectively.

    It's not hard to think of other applications of persistent artificial biofilms such as anti-corrosion coatings for steel structural elements [constructioncanada.net], wound dressings, and slick, self-renewing inner pipe coatings that help forestall the kind of destructive gunk buildups that inevitably require expensive remediation. More advanced artificial pseudo-life forms might, for example, actively destroy heavy termite infestations while simultaneously repairing the damaged lumber from the inside out, obviating the need to rip out sections of wall or to tear down entire rooms. Roofs become much more water-resistant with the aid of self-maintaining artificial biofilms that also have a limited ability to temporarily waterproof small roof sections blown away by high winds. Adventurous folks have their walls painted with color-shifting artificial biofilms, and ultra-low-cost pseudo-life biofilms provide amusing little animations on cereal boxes that jump into action upon detecting the light gradients of passersby in a supermarket. The sky's the limit for useful applications, I think.

    • As a reasonably educated layman, the main value I see in this sort of research is with potentially bypassing the complexity of naturally evolved biological entities -- bacteria, fungi, and so forth -- in favor of a careful, step-by-step approach to building useful functionality from relative simplicity. Yes, the resultant artificially "evolved" biological entities almost certainly will lack the robustness and subtle adaptability of naturally evolved life forms, but presumably researchers can in time develop special-purpose, artificial pseudo-life forms ...

      Ever hear about chairdogs? (Ringworld)

  • Scientists Create 'Living' Machines That Eat, Grow (Score:5, Funny)

    by jdharm ( 1667825 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @09:29AM (#58470910)
    So did I. It was easy. I'm not even a scientist. No 4-10 years of university, no multi-million dollar lab.

    His name is James and he's been doing that eating and growing thing for 15 years now. It was touch-and-go for a while there. The AI kept trying to find inventive ways to kill itself and seemed to have a mind of its own that wasn't very accepting of the training programs. It's gotten much better at general purpose intelligence and autonomy but in the past few years has become prone to sudden illogical and inexplicable behavior. And there's some weird bug in the visual processing that causes cron to suspend when a video screen becomes active nearby. When the screen shuts off cron resumes but crontab has been wiped and you have to rebuild it. It's really frustrating.

    I'm hoping that with a couple more years of training the AI will stabilize and - fingers crossed! - it'll get a job so I can start to realize a profit on my investment. Or at the very least the money hemorrhaging will stop. Wish me luck!

  • We are introducing a brand-new, lifelike material concept powered by its very own artificial metabolism. We are not making something that’s alive, but we are creating materials that are much more lifelike than have ever been seen before.

    It's not an optical illusion, it just looks like one.
    —Phil White

    What is the difference between a real song and a simulated song?
    —Douglas Hofstadter

  • These human-engineered organic machines are capable of locomotion, consuming resources for energy, growing and decaying, and evolving. Eventually they die.

    Someone finally came up with a worse idea than Faro robots from Horizon Zero Dawn [fandom.com]

  • Because that's how you get grey goo.

  • Are we sure these aren't machine lifeforms from outer space that have insinuated themselves into our society? We're gonna need an army of androids as insurance, in case something goes wrong. And we gotta start building the Bunker ASAP...

  • So long as no one forgets to bake in a kill switch.
  • Do you want replicators? Because this is how you get replicators... http://www.thescifiworld.net/i... [thescifiworld.net]

  • If it's DNA, it's life.

    Self-replicating chemical chains with telomere ends means it's pretty much the same as you, but it probably would rather eat you than hang out getting stoned on your couch.

  • I suggest a review (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I suggest everybody needs to review the following.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PLvdmifDSk

  • it's not life because... they say so?
    there are some organisms that do nothing more than this while still being considered alive.

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