Researchers Build Robot Jellyfish From Silicon and Rat Cells
A half-inch-long juvenile jellyfish pulses and swims much like any of its compatriots in oceans all over the world. The major difference? It’s entirely man-made.
“It’s a biohybrid robot. It’s part animal, it’s part synthetic material,” said Kevin Kit Parker, a bioengineer at Harvard University who led the jellyfish-building effort.
The ultimate aim of Parker’s little jellyfish isn’t to build animals, however. It’s to build artificial hearts for transplants in the future.
Parker, who has long studied heart cells, chose to reproduce a jellyfish first, so he could learn the basics of biological pumps. “The jellyfish was a first step in that we built a functioning pump with designer specs,” he told InnovationNewsDaily. “We’re going to continue to try it to ratchet it up by building harder and harder things until we’re ready for the heart.”
(via How Man-Made Jellyfish Could Help Heart Patients | LiveScience)
9.9 This is pretty amazing.
:U
Is this how the Borg starts
Published
ugh 