More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Scientists in the United States have created robots that can spontaneously self-replicate in what they’re calling a “profound” discovery.
The study, published on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, found that these computer-designed and hand-assembled organisms called “xenobots” can reproduce in a method not seen in plants and animals.
"People have thought for quite a long time that we've worked out all the ways that life can reproduce or replicate, but this is something that's never been observed before," Douglas Blackiston, co-author and a senior scientist at Tufts University and Harvard University, said in a news release.
The xenobots were first developed and reported in 2020. They are made from about 3,000 embryonic skin cells of an African clawed frog.
The researchers discovered that these xenobots -- when designed properly -- can swim around while collecting hundreds of single cells to assemble smaller versions of themselves in their mouths. These smaller xenobots can grow to be full-size within a few days.
This method of reproduction is known as kinematic replication and is common in molecules, but has never been seen in cells or organisms.
"This is profound," Michael Levin, a co-leader of the study and a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University. "These cells have the genome of a frog, but, freed from becoming tadpoles, they use their collective intelligence, a plasticity, to do something astounding."
To discover the xenobots’ reproduction capabilities, the researchers used a supercomputer at the University of Vermont to simulate billions of body shapes to determine what would be ideal for kinematic replication.
Months later, the computer returned a xenobot in a shape that resembled a Pac-Man figure, with a large mouth that can be used to build other xenobots.
“It looks very simple, but it's not something a human engineer would come up with,” said Sam Kriegman, the lead author of the study and a post-doctoral researcher at Tufts University and Harvard University.
For those concerned about the idea of self-replicating biotechnology, the researchers stress federal, state and institutional ethics experts also approved the study. It is also contained in a lab and can be extinguished easily.
“What presents risk is the next pandemic, accelerating ecosystem damage from pollution, (and) intensifying threats from climate change," said Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont.
"This is an ideal system in which to study self-replicating systems. We have a moral imperative to understand the conditions under which we can control it, direct it, douse it, exaggerate it."
The researchers also note that this technology has a host of potential benefits for humans, including regenerative medicine, cleaning ocean pollution and vaccine research.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”