Moreau”-esque monstrosity - it’s definitely too cute for the latter, and the former overstates the case.įor all the expertise and advances contained within this research, the resulting product is, essentially, purely mechanical. It was enough to get the team a cover story in Science - and it’s so visually striking that the journal ran a whole story on how it photographed the ray.īut let’s not get carried away in hyperbole such as that the researchers have created artificial life or some kind of horrifying “Island of Dr. The scope and precision of the researchers’ control over every process is plain to see, and this biobot represents a new bar in a field where the accomplishments are already almost beyond belief. Every aspect of the thing is either robotics-built to resemble biology, or biology-modified to resemble robotics. Taken individually, each aspect of this little biobot is remarkable, but the synergy created by adding them together makes the whole thing astonishing. You can see the cyber-critter in action below: Turning is accomplished by stimulating one side of the body more strongly than the other, and the muscles’ photoreactive nature makes them move naturally toward the source of the light. Nutrients are provided by the solution in which the whole thing is immersed. In the artificial ray, the muscles only have to exert themselves downwards when stimulated the curvature of the gold ribs in the opposite direction provides the counterforce and when the muscles relax, that part of the fin flexes back upwards. The motion batoid fishes use to get around is simple and elegant: Their bodies are essentially one big fin, which they undulate in controlled waves, sending themselves backwards, forwards or turning to one side. “Biobot” - or maybe “growbot,” since they’re cultured, not assembled - seems a catchier option. Its creators went wild with the nomenclature: “tissue-engineered soft robotic ray,” “biohybrid system,” “artificial animal,” and “bio-inspired swimming robot,” none of which completely satisfies. Yet, despite containing living cells that must grow and feed, it’s not quite an animal, either. NB: In a situation like this, “robot” doesn’t adequately capture the essence of the thing. Here’s a more detailed diagram of the layers and motive forces. The artificial ray next to “a little skate.” The whole thing is encased in an elastomeric sheath very much in the shape of a small ray. Around the ribs they cultured rat-derived cardiac muscle, genetically modified to respond to light instead of the usual electrical signals from the nervous system. They started with the skeleton: Gold is flexible and nonreactive, and they designed the spine and ribs to have a natural convexity. The researchers, led by Harvard’s Sung-Jin Park and Kevin Kit Parker, started with the skeleton, working at ~1/10th scale of the batoid fishes (comprising skates and rays) on which it is based, and recreating a simplified version of the creatures’ actual anatomy. Beautiful music by musician Jessica Fichot.Mimicking nature’s most elegant designs has become a popular method for creating equally elegant robots ( close, anyway) - but using nature’s raw materials, too? That’s what researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have done, creating a tiny light-controlled stingray with a solid gold skeleton that moves using reconstituted rat muscles.Art by award winning illustrator Lisa Evans.Unearth a tale of flower power with twisted roots.Meet a fluffy white hologram called Star Belly with a galaxy inside.

Collect the sounds of flowers and combine them to create powerful shields.Use your Brain(apilla) to solve puzzles.Interact with fantastic plants and aliens.Explore a beautiful space station and repair its strange machinery.It is being developed in Unity for Windows, Linux and Mac. The game is inspired by classic adventure games like Loom, modern adventure games like Machinarium, and aims to appeal to both seasoned and new gamers. When your station home is attacked by rapidly growing crystals, it's down to you to save it. Set upon a beautiful biopunk space station bursting with fantastic plants and aliens, you play as Nara, a growbot in training to become a captain. Growbot is a 2D point&click adventure about a robot saving her home from a dark crystalline force. Set upon a biopunk space station bursting with fantastic plants and aliens. Growbot A beautiful point&click adventure about a robot saving her homeĪ beautiful point&click adventure about a robot saving her home.Ī point-and-click adventure about a robot saving her home from a dark crystalline force.

Growbot nutrient system