Jellyfish robot created with living cells (VIDEO)

[Starshine]

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/jellyfish-robot-medusoid-living-cells-harvard-caltech

Scientists at Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology have created a jellyfish robot out of silicone and living muscle cells taken from a rat heart, according to an article in the journal Nature Biotechnology published today.

The researchers arranged the muscle cells on an eight-armed silicone shape so that when the cells were zapped with electricity, they would contract and the robot would swim through water like a live jellyfish, the Wall Street Journal reported.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2spbFpzyiJ0&feature=player_embedded


Pretty impressive.

 

[Starshine]

The Nature Biotechnology link :

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v30/n8/full/nbt.2269.html