'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
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.
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Police have released video footage of a dramatic takedown of a group of teens wanted in connection with an attempted carjacking in Markham earlier this month.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
Group of Seven foreign ministers warned of new sanctions against Iran on Friday for its drone and missile attack on Israel, and urged both sides to avoid an escalation of the conflict.
The World Health Organization is likely to issue a wider warning about contaminated Johnson and Johnson-made children's cough syrup found in Nigeria last week, it said in an email.
Several Nova Scotia groups that assist women are speaking out against comments on domestic violence by Justice Minister Brad Johns, and at least one is calling for his dismissal.
Every good wedding has to have one teensy, tiny crisis.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.