[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] World's first living robots can now reproduce, scientists say

[Robert Primak]

 What is a prion?
"The word itself derives from 'proteinaceous infectious particle'; it refers to the initially heretical hypothesis that the infectious agent causing those diseases consists only of protein, with no nucleic acid genome. (All previously known pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, contain nucleic acids, which enable them to reproduce.) The prion hypothesis explained why the mysterious infectious agent is resistant to ultraviolet radiation, which breaks down nucleic acids, but is susceptible to substances that disrupt proteins."
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-a-prion-specifica/ 

I can't begin to equal Dick Wagner's knowledge of the detailed mechanisms by which self-replicating and infectious proteins operate. This was not Dick's primary area of investigation, but he is far better equipped to explain what happens and how this can lead to infectious diseases than I am.
However, I can scrounge up a Scientific American level of explanation as to generally what's involved and why it's so difficult to diagnose and treat prion diseases. Give me a few months. 
The artificial nanobots look to me like they would be structured more like prions than like viri, but I could be wrong. Viri have RNA or DNA as well as proteins, whereas prions are bare proteins. Usually the "programming" of bio-nanobots is accomplished with carefully selected pieces of DNA or RNA, last I read. These nanobots may be different. 
BTW, Alzheimer's Disease is not presently thought to result from an infectious agent. But there could be a "vaccine" to prevent or forestall the process by which Alzheimer's forms plaques in the brain, last i read about the subject. So the human body itself can also make abnormal proteins which can accumulate and ultimately kill us. No one knows exactly how or why, but it's at least partly genetic in at least some families. 
I can do a talk after I do the three or four other talks I'm preparing for various groups, which include a talk on Linux for Old PCs for our own Lexington Computers and Technology Group (LCTG) at the end of this month. And a short piece about the Windows 11 upgrade notifications and how to deal with them, at the request of John Rudy, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 22nd. 
I still have "a few" slides to prepare...
-- Bob Primak 



    On Friday, December 3, 2021, 06:16:33 PM EST, Evie <et8686 at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 Very interesting! Bob,
 It's very interesting because it could be used in many applications (medical, and even environmental, etc.).
How did the scientists actually do it in the lab?.....The process from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) to xenobots, which are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide. 
We all know how AI is installed in computer robots, but how"bio artificial intelligence" is installed in frog's stem cells?🤔The article explained "The supercomputer came up with a C-shape that resembled Pac-Man, the 1980s video game." and "The shape is, in essence, the program. The shape influences how the xenobots behave to amplify this incredibly surprising process." 🤔🤔🤔 And I am totally lost reading the Research Article, Kinematic self-replication in reconfigurable organisms, https://www.pnas.org/content/118/49/e2112672118!🙄🙄🙄

Are prion proteins functioning similar to stem cells?Dick Wagner's talk on the CRISPR page has terms I am not familiar with.  
Do I ask too many questions? Maybe you could talk about this in one of the meetings as you have a biochemistry background.👍Evie

On Thu, Dec 2, 2021 at 1:26 AM Robert Primak <bobprimak at yahoo.com> wrote:

 I saw that. I chafe at calling this a "life form", but they have to bait those clicks somehow.
I refer you to Dick Wagner's talk on CRISPR, wherein he chafes at calling a bacterial phage a virus. Viri are only endemic to eukariotic cells (with a true nucleus and certain chromosome characteristics). 
Similarly, viri have been called life forms by some (not all) scientists, though they do not fulfill all the criteria of a complete life form. Then there are prion proteins, which are self-replicating but lack other characteristics even viri possess. (Mad Cow Disease is caused by a prion, as is Chronic Wasting Disease in wild deer. And Scrapies in sheep.) https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-8-493#:~:text=Animal%20prion%20diseases%20include%20scrapie,and%20spongiform%20encephalopathy%20of%20primates.

(I minored in biochemistry in college, and did a tiny bit of grad school before dropping out.)
So now we have synthetic "life" forms. The lines blur even further.
The machines are taking over, and we will be serving them before long. 
-- Bob Primak
     On Wednesday, December 1, 2021, 08:07:10 PM EST, Evie <et8686 at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 Very interesting......

World's first living robots can now reproduce, scientists sayhttps://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/americas/xenobots-self-replicating-robots-scn/index.html===============================================
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