Opinion: A Robot with a Heart of ... Muscle?
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Biotechnology has left the domain of ‘weird’ and planted its feet firmly in the realm of ‘kind of scary.’ NPR takes a look at some bizarro bio-art:
During a recent workshop, hosted by the Machine Project in Los Angeles, Zurr guided a small group of aspiring bioartists through a ‘painting’ exercise. First, [artist Ionat] Zurr sawed open the femur of a freshly-slaughtered cow. After choosing which cells she wanted, she ‘painted’ them onto a three-dimensional scaffolding made of degradable polymer — a type of plastic. Over many weeks, the cells will grow over whatever shape the scaffolding takes, turning into a living sculpture of skin.
And now, according to the Loh Down, scientists have created creepy, crawly biobots:
...bio-engineers grow heart muscle cells, harvested from rats, onto thin plastic skeletons. The skeletons are patterned with protein blueprints that guide the cells into alignment. Once deposited, the cells mold around the plastic to form working muscle tissue. The robots can flex their home-grown muscle tissue and move independently -- like living creatures. One such tissue robot, invented at Harvard, creeps across its Petri dish like an inchworm. Another one has a tail like a fish and can swim. A group at National University in Korea has designed a crab-like version that sidles about on six legs. Because they’re partly alive, these machines don’t need external power. They just need food -- a simple sugar solution.
Seriously, haven’t these guys seen ‘The Matrix’?
Granted, the art above probably raises more objections than the science, but it won’t be long until scientists incorporate artificial intelligence and these half-living vessels -- and then the moral issues are bound to get messy.
Notice, stem cells feature somewhat in the first of these projects -- but neither one really needs them to push the limits of bioethics. As the editorial board notes in ‘Life,’ part two of its American Values series:
Last month’s news that scientists in Japan and Wisconsin had modified adult skin cells to behave as embryonic stem cells seemed at first to have resolved this issue, but that’s only true if you believe that the debate over stem cells, cloning and genetic modification is a subset of the debate over abortion. It is not. It is, or could become, the central life debate of our time, and depending on your perspective, the questions it raises are either exhilarating or horrifying.
You can read the piece and explore the series here.