Organs on a Chip

Quinton Smith, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at one of the colleges I attended, the University of California (Irvine), is working on organoids -- "organs-on-a-chip." Stem cells are grown in "three-dimensional gel molds" to mimic human organs in order to explore "how tissues interact." For example, he has reprogrammed stem cells into liver cells to study the connection between liver disease and diet; he grows miniature placentas to investigate preeclampsia. Lab-grown organoids have an ethical advantage over animal experimentation. They're also preferable to animals, which aren't precise counterparts of human subjects, in being composed of actual human cells.

The Organsmith

Here's a Wikipedia article explaining the process in greater depth and technical detail:

Organoids

Of course, I realize these scientists aren't creating independently living organisms, much less generating life from inanimate matter, but the concept still sounds intriguingly Frankensteinian.

Remember the lab-grown miniature brains being studied by neuroscientists?

Artificially Grown Mini-Brains

It's fun to imagine the mini-brains attaining sapience, then conspiring to radicalize the other organoids, overthrow the experimenters, break out of the lab, and rampage through the wider world like the Blob in the vintage movie.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Xenobots

Organic "robots" developed from frog cells have learned to reproduce:

Self-Replicating Robots

Formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog, the "xenobots," as was revealed in 2020, "could move, work together in groups and self-heal." Now they've developed the ability to reproduce "in a way not seen in plants and animals." The article compares them to Pac-Man figures, and there's a video clip showing them in action. Although they have no practical use yet, eventually they may be capable of applications such as "collecting microplastics in the oceans, inspecting root systems, and regenerative medicine."

These nanobots problematize the definition of "life." Are they robots or organisms? Furthermore, they potentially raise the question of what constitutes intelligence. If intelligence means the ability to respond to environmental changes by adapting one's behavior, even plants and bacteria have it. If true intelligence requires sapience—consciousness—it may be restricted to us, some other higher primates, and a few cetaceans. But if intelligence mainly equals problem-solving, the xenobots do exhibit "plasticity and ability of cells to solve problems."

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt