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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Science Imitation of life

Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 8:54 AM

Using recent advances in marine biomechanics, materials science, and tissue engineering, a team of researchers at Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have turned inanimate silicone and living cardiac muscle cells into a freely swimming "jellyfish."

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In a million years it will evolve into self running sneakers.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on July 24, 2012 at 9:02 AM

You don't think that's magic?!? Somebody FUCKING MADE A JELLYFISH! Sounds like magic to me.

Posted by devinderry on July 24, 2012 at 9:14 AM

It's essentially a primitive cyborg. i.e. a fusion of technology and biology.
It's not sentient and it doesn't feed or breed so it doesn't qualify as a species.
Still, scary science. Fascinating, but still scary science.

Posted by Merlin D. Bear on July 24, 2012 at 9:29 AM

We are the gods.

That Designer to whom the spouters of intelligent design hogwash refer--who does s/he pray to? What mysteries does s/he look at and say, "That is beyond my ability to understand?"

Faith is the acceptance of our limitations. We are the gods.

Posted by Fried Worms on July 24, 2012 at 9:58 AM

When does this get accidentally released, and when do we turn into zombies? I need to get some ammo off the internet before then.

Posted by wisepunk on July 24, 2012 at 10:10 AM

This is a pale imitation of life. It's no more a jellyfish than a submarine is a fish. It's just a machine. When they can get it to eat, shit and breed I'll be impressed.

Still, fucking cool!

Posted by Root on July 24, 2012 at 10:16 AM

While this is a cute idea, has potential for further development, and serves the always-useful purpose of capturing the imagination and attention of the lay public, it's rather unfortunate that they chose to characterize it as a "jellyfish."

Cells of many types are easily grown in liquid culture medium and adhere to a solid or flexible substrate; cardiac myocytes are known to contract spontaneously. Here they got the cells to grow on a surface shaped to produce unidirectional motion when bent and released, and they coordinated the cellular contractions by passing electric current through the liquid.

But there is no nervous system or sensory organ; no ability to purposefully orient in a particular direction, toward light or food or others of its kind; no capacity to evade predators or capture any nutrient source possessed of its own ability to flee; it cannot reproduce itself. All of those, and more, are things a jellyfish can do.

Posted by rob!