This isn’t weird at all, and we shouldn’t even be mentioning it, let alone talking about it.
But leave it to the Russians to put it in a headline, and get the trailer park gun nut conspiracy theorists who are too stupid and inbred to understand science all fired up.
RT:
Researchers have developed new and improved xenobots, tiny biological machines constructed from frog cells that are now able to organize themselves into a single body as a ‘swarm’ and even ‘remember’ their surroundings.
The upgraded bots built on work first unveiled by scientists at Tufts University and the University of Vermont last year, improving on the design to allow them to move faster, live longer and assemble themselves to work collectively as one unit, a process known as “cellular self-organization.” Outlined in an article for the Science Robotics journal on Wednesday, the breakthrough could shed light on “swarm intelligence” in the animal kingdom and beyond.
“Roboticists have been looking at swarm intelligence for a long time, biologists have been studying swarm intelligence in organisms. This is something in between, which I think is kind of interesting,”said University of Vermont researcher Josh Bongard.
“It sort of suggests, to me at least as a roboticist, is this a better path to making swarms of useful machines than it is to make swarms out of traditional robotic parts?”
The researchers also said their work showed that a “writable molecular memory” is possible, giving the xenobots the ability to “record exposure to a specific wavelength of light” using a special type of protein that turns red when exposed to blue light.
While the earlier iteration relied on the contraction of muscle cells for movement, the new model uses hair-like structures on its surface known as cilia, allowing it to crawl and swim around faster. Still capable of self-healing, the updated version is also able to survive for three to seven days longer than its forerunner, which only lasted for about a week.
Creating new life forms, such as swarming xenobots made of frog cells, is perfectly normal.
It’s no different than when George Washington Carver made a cotton stalk hybrid.
The Luddites who believe that the public should be made aware of things like swarming xenobots are backward and racist. An attack on swarming xenobots is a direct attack on the legacy of George Washington Carver, and an attempt to erase blackness.
The racist conspiracy theory that scientists are trying to use genetic engineering to create humanoid creatures with swarm intelligence is no less dangerous than asking how the totally normal and completely unquestionable coronavirus vaccine works.
It’s time for racists to stop reading this Kremlin propaganda and get with the swarm.
It’s not 1099 AD, and I’m not a Norman invading Britain to usurp the Saxon monarchy! I’m not going to invade Scotland!
It’s 2021!
It’s not 1881, and I’m not the town marshal of Tombstone, Texas on my way to a gunfight at the O.K. Corral! I’m not going to draw my six shooter!
It’s 2021!
It’s not 1913, and I’m not an 11-year-old girl working in a pencil factory getting raped and murdered by my Jewish manager the kindly negro night watchman! My body isn’t going to be dumped in the basement near the incinerator!
It’s 2021!
Self-healing swarming xenobots made from frog cells are as perfectly normal as cat images on the internet, or a Starbucks barista writing your name on your coffee cup in a fun way!
2021!
The current year!
This isn’t some historic time period!