Random Ass Jawns
Powered by 🌱Roam GardenXenobots
Links for learning
"Xenobots I": https://cdorgs.github.io
"Xenobots II": https://livingrobotswarms.github.io
https://voxcraft.github.io will get you designing and building softbots (not quite biobots, but close)
Our MOOC: https://reddit.com/r/ludobots/
Flash cards April 18th, 2021
What are stem cells
cells that are able to develop into many different types of cells
What types of stem cells are there?
Embryonic (Xenobots are made from these, made for research purposes)
Adult
What are the naturally occuring hairs that develop on the cell?
cilia, they allow the cells to swim, but they also were removed so these Xenobots would walk instead
What animal were the original cells taken from?
Frog embryo
What body parts did were the original cells taken from? Why?
Skin cells and heart cells
According to this video, that combination was chosen because heart cells naturally contract, but skin cells don't, so they guessed it would lend itself to some sort of functional structure
Is there any genome editing involved in the creation?
No
Explain the term Reconfigurable Organisms
The cells taken from the frog do not resemble a frog in any way. They have been assembled into an entirely new being, hence, "reconfigured" into a new type of organism
The aggregated cells of the resulting organism can also be disassociated and reconfigured to form a new organism.
How do computers design organisms?
simulated evolution
It begins with random structures (built with modeled lego bricks for heart muscle and skin cells), then scores all the random structures, then randomly reconfigures the high performers, while deleting the low performers
Amphibian Eggs are microinjected with RNA
24 hours later the egg membrane is removed
stem cells harvested from embryo (embryonic stem cells)
thick outer layer separted and discarded
remaining stem cells are then layered in wells
layered cells reaggregate into a sphere of tissue
spheres are then course shaped using micro-cautery
cauterize: burn the skin or flesh of (a wound) with a heated instrument or caustic substance, typically to stop bleeding or prevent the wound from becoming infected.
And fine sculpted using surgical forceps
4 days layer cardiac cells enable walking
these are the same type of cells that make up the heart
These xenobots were built from Frog skin (green in the above image) and heart muscle (red). Both were derived from cells harvested from blastula stage Xenopus laevis embryos. These tissues naturally develop cilia (waving hairs which enable swimming), but the cilia were removed in the green/red colored organism to producing a walking (instead of swimming) organism.
final product is ~5000 cells
can heal themselves when damaged... which is sick. They have no brain, but they do functional things like walk, swim, push objects, and "work in groups" (by walking together?)
They come "pre-loaded" with lipid and protein deposits, providing life for over a week. However if grown in a nutrient rich cell-culture media, their lifespan can be increased to weeks or months.
How do Computers Design them?
simulated evolution
computers model the skin and heart muscle in a lego blocks fashion. The constructions are modeled in physics based VR, where they are rated. The best rated ones are randomly mutated, while the worst ones are thrown out. The highest performers at the end are built in real life