Scientists create life-like material that eats, grows, evolves on its own

Getting one step closer to making livable machines, scientists have now created a new material with life-like abilities that has an artificial metabolism of its own because of which it can ‘eat, grow and evolve’ itself.

Scientists from Cornell University have created a new biomaterial that mimics biological life and uses synthetic DNA to continuously and autonomously organize, assemble and restructure itself in a process similar to how our cells and tissues grow that the team is calling ‘artificial metabolism’.

“We are introducing a brand-new, lifelike material concept powered by its very own artificial metabolism,” engineer Dan Lui said. “We are not making something that’s alive, but we are creating materials that are much more lifelike than have ever been seen before.”

New artificial cells capable of producing their own energy via photosynthesis

The biomaterial imitates a biological organism’s continuous metabolic cycle of taking in energy and replacing old cells, explained Futurism. When the material was placed in a nutrient-rich environment, it grew in the direction of the raw materials and food it needed to bloom.

Also, the material lets its tails end die off and decay, giving the appearance of a constantly-regrowing slime mold travelling around towards food, described the research published in the journal Science Robotics.

The scientists believe that even with this development, they are just getting started, Lead author on the team’s paper, Shogo Hamada, told The Stanford Chronicle that ‘ultimately, the system may lead to lifelike self-reproducing machines’.