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Week 6 [20-26.04.2020] Living Robots?!


Nowadays science goes beyond our imagination. The development of technology lets scientists discover more of the universe, go deeper into the oceans, find organisms and creatures never seen before but it also let them make a new one. 

Watch this short film about big new accomplishment of United States' researchers - Xenobots, which are living robots and learn about them on your own.


Questions:
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued? 2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots? 3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?

Comments

1. I think the discovery is simply amazing! I have some concerns whether we should as a race play god and create living creatures by ourselves, but if it will have some benefits to it I say we should go for it.
2. It would be nice if the bots could fight infections in human bodies. Who knows maybe we could use them instead of vaccinations that some people think that they are dangerous? Maybe they could cure viruses like the one we have to endure right now in the outbreak
3. I have heard about very promising invention to gather electrical energy from lighting during the storm. Weather in Poland is not famous for being particularly stormy, but still if the technology was to get robust, we could benefit from it tremendously.
Yubin said…
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?
I heard this discovery 3 months ago, as I see, there hasn't been much progress so far, it is still hard to discuss, in my opinion, at this research stage, the artificially constructed cell obtained by the model that is built by algorithms is not a concept with the programming organism, I would rather say that it is machine using programming. Anyway, the origin of life starts with a simple structure, so I think future research will make it a truly programmable organism. I think that making multicellular complex organisms through science is wrong, but making small structures like cells through science is still a bit acceptable, although I don’t recommend it too.

2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots?
If it becomes a real robot and is mass-produced, it is a good idea to use them to detect the remaining mines left in the wars.

3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?
Yes, this fascinating discovery is which boarded up the latest issue of Nature cover last week. As we all know, the universe was born in a big bang, but what happened after the big bang, humans have not yet fully understood it, and no one knows what broke the symmetry of the universe (if it is symmetry which means there are as many positive-matter as anti-matter, the universe will not have even proton and electron). The discovery found that neutrinos broke this symmetry, and the asymmetry of the universe may be hidden in the asymmetry of neutrinos. Just search images about "Super Kamiokande", I hope neutrino and Super Kamiokande will achieve the next Nobel Prize.
Bartosz Barnat said…
1. I didn't even think that scientist were trying to create life like presented in the video. I think it should be pursued and there is nothing wrong with it.

2. I have no idea. But the fact that it is making all this movements by itself is really increadible to me.

3. Unfortunately not. I haven't heard about anything interesing right now. I only hear about pandemic and new rules caused by it. I saw a video once which shown a ships landing on the moon but it turned out to be just an animation. It's hard to find out if something is true or not right now. There is so much fake news that its hard to see the real ones.
Maciej Sadoś said…
1. It should definitely be pursued in my opinion because it creates endless posibilities for us to use that creatures in various areas of our lives. Just like it was presented in the video we could use them to cure us. The world must go on and that kind of experiments are definitely something that will shape our future.

2. The first think that comes to my mind is a medical usage like it was mentioned in the video. Another one is possibly some changes in our bodies to enchance ourselves. Or even build some big-sized creatures of this as a whole human/animal-like organism like robot, but alive.

3. Strange to say but I really haven't heard about any interesting discovery lately. Guess YT recommendations didn't want me to learn about any :-)
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?
I think every single discovery is good for humanity. We should never prohibit making researches if we don't know the intentions or consequences. Some things may turn up to do something completely different than it was assumed at the beginning, so we have to see, analyze and develop more and more.

2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots?
I would have to think a bit about it because I only got a brief idea of what Xenobot is. I think it could be used for actions that require more than a programmed robot can do. What I mean is that our organism is doing many actions that we don't understand. If we could use such mechanisms with Xenobots, we could jump over a step that would require us to understand why something is done and simply do it.

3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?
Now I hear only about the discoveries connected to COVID-19. There are many ideas, many possibilities and many obstacles to overcome yet, but I hope that scientists will manage to discover some medicine or vaccination.
Viktor Ryś said…
1.
I wonder if those are actually living creatures, from what I understood those are just an autonomous cluster of cell, so it's a long way till science creates some actual living creature from scratch, but when that's possible I'm all for it, it could make cloning possible and restore extinct species of animals which is exciting. As for that discovery it's certainly interesting.

2.
`Probably medical related stuff, as stated in the video such small robots could not be fought by the immune system and also could help with curing some specific illness in human

3.
Not really I feel like the recently there were little new breakthroughs in science
Andrzej Kawiak said…
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?

I think it's a wonderful and very important discovery. They're new, living machines. They are neither a traditional robot nor a known animal species. It's a new class of artifacts: living, programmable organisms. With this discovery, we can deepen our knowledge of cellular development. Maybe we can also prolong human life. Or we can find out how cancers are formed. I think we should develop knowledge in this direction. This newly acquired knowledge about cellular development will affect the development of knowledge about our body. Robots, are tiny clusters of 500 to 1000 cells that can move within a petri dish, organize themselves and even transport small loads. The work of American scientists is the first biological machines ever created from scratch. when they are damaged - for example, when they are halfway through, like living robots "stitch themselves together" and continue to operate.

2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots?
I think the target will be in emergency medicine, albeit as a transport of drugs. . They could be used, for example, in the search for radioactive contaminants, cleaning the oceans of plastic or removing atherosclerotic plaques from vessels. They also have the advantage that they are simply biodegradable.

3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?
Now everyone is waiting for the virus vaccine to be discovered
MichalB said…
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?

I have mixed feelings about this discovery. I'm afraid of what was shown on the Terminator. Artificial intelligence and man. We know in advance what can happen. War.

2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots?

100% someone will use them for something. Probably at the beginning in a small percentage, as usual, and then better. Each invention must find its niche, enter it and develop there.

3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?

All discoveries are fascinating. It doesn't matter if they concern biology, chemistry, medicine or the automotive industry. But recently I heard about a fascinating discovery. My 11 year old son discovered an electric skateboard. She fascinated him and rides her everywhere. This's a fascinating discovery for him and me. He's not sitting in front of the computer.
1. I agree with hypothetical arguments given in this video of how those xenobots could be used. About ethical side of this discovery i think that as long as they won’t do any harm they should be developed and used.

2. I think that examples from video are good, medical usage and ways to reduce pollution.

3. Recently any discoveries i came across are connected with coronavirus like tests or syringe.
1. This looks incredible. I wouldn't say they are creatures and therefore I don't think its anywhere close to unethical.

2. I would be interested in all the medical benefits of Xenobiotics. We could use them to cure the uncurable or just for safer medical procedures than now. I could also find extremely helpful if they could burn my fat without the need of exercising :D

3. Sadly no. However, I've recently seen the newest pictures of Jupiter. They are stunning. https://www.space.com/stunning-image-of-jupiter-from-nasa-juno.html
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?
I think this discovery is very interesting. I didn’t know that combining two live cells could create new form named Xenobot. It’s fascinating. This reminds me of people playing god. This could be dangerous. It's difficult to say what should we do. I think some of experiments could help us better understand our body. We need to find a border line that will stop us continuing research when we see that our work goes in wrong way.

2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots?
I think in the future we could use Xenobots to fight with skin diseases and other diseases our body. We could do simulations in laboratories to test Xenobots performance. Maybe in the future Xenobots will be living medicine.

3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?
Unfortunately, I didn’t hear about any fascinating discovery. I don’t have much time to search Internet about discoveries or watch TV about them. I spend a lot of time in laboratory working on my PhD thesis.
Kyrylo said…
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?
I would say that we will eventually come to this. The planet is deteriorating, reproduction in the traditional sense can get too over complicated.
2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots?
Numerous applications. perhaps we can create a superhuman with them.
3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?
Not really, but I think that a vaccine to one interesting virus would be a breaching discovery.
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?
I think that it is something worth pursuing. What we do with those living creatures is the more important question of ethics for me.
2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots?
I think that the medical purpose sounds the most reasonable. I can't really think of anything else good really.
3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?
This coronavirus topic really clouded the news all over the world so I didn't hear about any fascinating discovery lately.
Maciej Szczypek said…
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?

It seems like a very interesting discovery that could be applied to a lot of areas in our life. I think that creating groups of cells which break down after a couple of days is very different from actually 'making a living creature' so it my opinion it is not wrong at all. When artificially creating a proper living organism, the issue is much more complicated from a moral point of view and as far as I know, different organisations in the world have their own approach to it and there is not a universal stand. In general, I support all medical studies and experiments as long as they are done in good faith and do not harm anyone.

2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots?

I guess they could be very helpful in medicine. Maybe they could help transport medication more quickly and effciently through our organisms or help with conditions like anemia if they could be sort of programmed to transport e.g. the blood cells.

3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?

Lately I have been watching a program about the ancient aliens. They talked about discovering the remains in Malta which were human-like except they had an unusally long shaped skulls, almost twice as long as a normal human skulls. They also talked about the discovery of some caves that were specially designed to make the sounds resonate at a certain frequency in order to stimulate a specific part of the human brain.
Thanks for Your comment. I must agree with You, I also have some concerns about humans playing god. Creating robots of some metal or plastic parts is one thing but creating actual artificial living organism that has never been on Earth before is something completely different. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing just that we should be careful, not to end like humans in Terminator movie. Gathering electrical energy from lightning that is something. It would be really nice to make it work, maybe people would stop polluting Earth with coal energy and switch to that instead.
1 / The creation of completely new organisms raises many ethical issues - even if these organisms are not able to think or feel in the usual sense. As technology advances, the scientific community will probably have to work out rules to ensure an ethical attitude towards xenobot-like organisms.

2 / Robots created from living cells, on the contrary, are safe for human health and exclude any harm to the environment. Xenobots can be used to clean radioactive waste, collect microplastics in the oceans, or transfer drugs through vessels within the human body. In addition to these directly practical tasks, xenobots can also help researchers learn more about cell biology - further experiments to create biorobots will give scientists an idea of ​​how cells interact with each other in various combinations.

3 / For the development of technology, scientists have to learn how to more precisely control the process of growth and interaction of different types of cells. At the moment, according to the researchers, this goal does not seem easy to achieve - like printing xenobots from living cells on a 3D printer on an industrial scale. So far, scientists cannot say how the technology will develop further and what limitations developers of living cell robots may face.
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?

I really think all this scientific discovery is getting more and more fascinating and interesting but to be honest all of this is scary because although science has contributed tremendously to our good way of living but also science is definitely destroying the world.

2. What is your idea of the purpose of Xenobots?

To me, the purpose of this is not clear at all but they just present to us some benefits at a larger scale but I believe these scientists themselves don't exactly know what negative effects this might occur.

3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?

No really, I don't follow these kinds of news but I'm looking forward to these scientists to find a cure for Covid-19.
Klaudia Kozioł said…
1. I don’t have strong opinion about this discovery yet. I kind of think that scientists shouldn’t make living creatures as Xenobots, but I would have to learn more about it to give my full opinion on this subject.
2. Honestly, I don’t have idea what purpose Xenobots can have. Based on their sizes they could be great improvement in any medical procedures, but I think that they are to unpredictable at least for now.
3. Not really, but I also haven’t looked for them.
Roman Burlaka said…
1. Living creatures are making other living creatures every day, every single minute. We use a lot of them for different purposes so I don't see problems with creating some more of them in a laboratory for a few more direct goals.

2. Current version? They can only move in one constant direction so we can make a race with them, allow people to give their own ideas of design to increase speed and make money on debts.

3. I have heard about discovery that tells about relationship berween level of oxygen, celular regenaration and cancer. Something like this, cause I don't remember details, if to be honest. But I think that the main idea is that cancer is a result of too strong and fast uncontrolled regeneration.
Maciej Górczak said…
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?
I heard about these cells two years ago and possible usage of them in cosmic mining (e.g. extracting metals and minerals from asteroids)
2. What is your idea of ​​purpose for Xenobots?
Starting with medicine, ending with universe and what is above our heads - possibilities are endless.
3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?
I've heard that in the future we will power our phones with our sweat (and I am not joking).
Thanks for Your comment. That is true, latest news are full of pandemic and COVID-19 news and sometimes it is hard to find anything not related. Even if You finally find something interesting it is usually fake news as You said, especially on internet.
Thanks for Your comment. I agree with You that experiments like this could shape our future. For me idea of super small robots injected in my circulatory system to cure, uncurable today diseases like cancer or HIV is just totally science fiction, but apparently more and more possible. Enhancing our bodies seems also totally absurd, just like in TV show Altered Carbon, but I hope something like this would be possible during our lifetimes.
1. What do you think about this discovery? Do you think that making living creatures trough science is wrong or it should be pursued?

I've heard about it a few months ago, however I don't see any big progress in that. Perhaps we have to wait. It's really amazing discovery that can have big impact in the way we live in the future.

2. What is your idea of purpose for Xenobots?

The potential of this is endless. A lot of things with automatization and replacing human jobs and also for do risky things to human.

3. Have you heard lately about any fascinating discovery?

Robots made by Boston Robotics or the chips made by Texas Instruments are also promissing in this particular field.
Thanks for Your comment. I have the same opinion, we never should forbid research about anything before we can fully understand what it is and how does it work. There are a lot of different things that we have to discuss before even trying to use Xenobots in real life.
Thanks for Your comment. It is true that scientists are still far away from creating actual living organism, but it is a start. It could be big breakthrough in medicine but also I’m sure it would have to be checked very strictly because letting a robots inside our body can basically kill us in seconds so we have to be super careful to be sure if it would work.
Thanks for Your comment. I agree, Xenobots can give us so many possibilities on so many levels in so many layers of our existence that this in unimaginable. I’m sure that people will find usage for Xenobots in every aspect of our lives. I like Your statement that with Xenobots we have new type of organisms, not only living but programmable organisms as well.
Roman Dubovyi said…
1. I saw this, it's not a living creature. And I don't think that in the nearest future humanity will be able to recreate life. Creating and improving bots like this is more likely, I think.

2. Possibilities are many. I think that technology of xenobots that can degrade plastics into basic components could be a planet saver.

3. Yes, scientists have discovered that strong force field emitted by a Tesla coil causes carbon nanotubes to self-assemble into long wires, a phenomenon they call "Teslaphoresis". The researches discovered that the phenomenon simultaneously assembles and powers circuits that harvest energy from the field.

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