To persist, life must reproduce. Scientists at the University of Vermont, Tufts University, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction and applied their discovery to create the first-ever, self-replicating (自我复制的) living robots.
Named Xenobots after the African clawed frog from which scientists take their stem cells, the machines are less than 0.04 inches wide—small enough to travel inside human bodies. They can walk and swim, survive for weeks without food, and work together in groups. They even have regenerative capabilities; when the scientists sliced into one robot, it healed by itself and kept moving.
The Xenobots could potentially be used toward a host of tasks. Xenobots could be used to clean up radioactive waste and collect microplastics in the oceans. Some Xepobots had holes in their center, which could potentially be used to transport drugs or medicines. “Traditional robots degrade (降解) over time and can produce harmful ecological and health side effects,” researchers said in the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As biological machines, Xenobots are more environmentally friendly and safer for human health. Aside from these immediate practical tasks, Xenobots could also help researchers to learn more about cell biology—opening the doors to future advancement in human health and longevity.
While the prospect of self-replicating biotechnology could spark concern, the researchers said that the living machines were entirely contained in a lab and easily destroyed, as they are biodegradable and regulated by experts. “There are many things that are possible if we take advantage of this kind of plasticity (可塑性) and ability of cells to solve problems,” said Joshua Bongard, one of the lead researchers at the University of Vermont.
【小题1】What can we learn about Xenobots from Paragraph 3?| A．They can be widely applied to curing diseases. |
| B．They can serve well the research on human health. |
| C．They are specially designed to collect radioactive waste. |
| D．They are harmless to the environment by degrading plastics. |
| A．Positive. | B．Indifferent. | C．Doubtful. | D．Ambiguous. |
| A．A new application of a machine in medicine. |
| B．The latest trend of developing biotechnology. |
| C．The invention of the first self-reproduction robots. |
| D．An experiment on cells from African clawed frogs. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Health. | C．Sports | D．Science. |
