«Living robots» created last year from the cells of Xenopus laevis frog embryos have begun to reproduce.
Under laboratory conditions, specialists have created cell structures capable of self-organizing, sensing the environment and moving in groups. The results of the study have been published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The scientific work was carried out by specialists from the University of Vermont. They isolated stem cells from embryos, which were to become the skin of frogs. As it turned out, in groups, the xenobots began creating spheres of three thousand cells.
"One parent (the xenobot) is able to create a pile, and later, at random, the second parent can put more cells into that pile and so on, creating a baby," the University of Vermont scientists said.