There is a new robot that can create baby robots. This is like science fiction. In 2020, scientists from universities in the USA made the world's first "living" robots. They came from the stem cells of an African frog and are called xenobots. They are less than one millimetre wide. They move and work in groups, and repair themselves. They don't look like robots. The scientists say they are a machine-animal hybrid. They are "a new life-form".
Researchers tested billions of body shapes to make a C-shaped robot. The inside of the "C" is the xenobot's mouth. It gathers small cells in its mouth and these become baby xenobots. This is new technology. It could change science, medicine, the environment and the way we live. They could repair damage to our body and clean up oil and plastic in the oceans. There are many benefits, but some people are worried about robots that can reproduce.
Try the same news story at these levels:
Xenobots - Level 0, Xenobots - Level 2 or Xenobots - Level 3
Sources- https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/29/americas/xenobots-self-replicating-robots-scn/index.html
- https://inews.co.uk/news/scientists-create-worlds-first-reproductive-robots-1325805
- https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2021/11/xenobots-reproduce/
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