新闻导读：
机器人不仅“有生命”还能“生孩子”？
据环球时报，美国有线电视新闻网11月29日报道称，美国科学家研究发现，被称为全球首个活体机器人的“异形机器人”可以进行自我繁衍。
报道称，这种“异形机器人”不同于传统意义上的机械装置机器人，其本质仍是生物体，用青蛙胚胎中提取的干细胞培植而成，长度不到1毫米，但比微生物大得多。起初，这种机器人无法实现“系统性繁殖”，在研究人员引入人工智能技术，通过大量计算推演后，发现了适合“异形机器人”自我复制的繁衍方式。
这一研究结果发表在《美国科学院院报》上，该研究一经发表便引发争议，有网友直呼“我们要完蛋了”。创造出该机器人的美国科学家邦加德邦加德回应称，这些“异形机器人”目前都存放在实验室中，很容易被销毁。
邦加德称目前世界面临的新冠疫情，以及环境问题，异形机器人都有能力解决。
此外，研究团队还从异形机器人中看到了再生医学的前景，这是解决创伤损伤、出生缺陷乃至攻克癌症和衰老的方法之一。
(CNN) The US scientists who created the first living robots say the life forms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce -- and in a way not seen in plants and animals.
Formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) from which it takes its name, xenobots are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide. The tiny blobs were first unveiled in 2020 after experiments showed that they could move, work together in groups and self-heal.
美国科学家创造了首例活体机器人，并称这一名为“Xenobot"的活体机器人, 通过一种在动植物中都没有过的方式进行繁殖。
因其由非洲爪蛙(Xenopus laevis)的干细胞形成，所以它的名字Xenobot从其名字而来。2020年这个微小的宽度不足一毫米（0.04英寸）的活体机器人才首次被公开，实验表明它们可以移动，能以小组方式工作，并且能够自愈。
Now the scientists that developed them at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering said they have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction different from any animal or plant known to science.
"I was astounded by it," said Michael Levin, a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University who was co-lead author of the new research.
"Frogs have a way of reproducing that they normally use but when you ... liberate (the cells) from the rest of the embryo and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment, not only do they figure out a new way to move, but they also figure out apparently a new way to reproduce."
正在佛蒙特大学，塔夫斯大学，哈弗大学威斯生物工程研究所进行开发的科学家们称，他们发现了一整个全新的，有别于科学已知的任何动植物的生物繁殖方式。
“它让我我非常吃惊”生物学教授，塔夫斯大学艾伦探索中心负责人兼新研究联合主要作者Michael Levin说。
“青蛙有种常规的的繁殖方式，但当你将细胞从剩下的胚胎中释放出来，将它们放在一个新的环境中，它们不只弄清了怎么移动，也创造了显然是一种新的繁殖方式。“
The C-shaped parent xenobots collect and compress loose stem cells together into piles which can mature into offspring. C型xenobot母体将零散的干细胞收集起来并压缩成堆，即可养成下一代
Robot or organism?
机器还是生物体？
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the ability to develop into different cell types. To make the Xenobots, the researchers scraped living stem cells from frog embryos and left them to incubate. There's no manipulation of genes involved.
干细胞是能够发展成其他类型细胞的非特化细胞。为了做出xenobot（活体机器人）, 研究人员将活体干细胞从青蛙胚胎中提取出来并让其孵化。过程不涉及任何对基因的操作。
"Most people think of robots as made of metals and ceramics but it's not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people," said Josh Bongard, a computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study.
"In that way it's a robot but it's also clearly an organism made from genetically unmodified frog cell."
大多数人认为机器人是由金属和陶瓷制成的，但机器人并不跟用什么制成而是与它能做什么有关，即能够代表人类自主行事。“ 佛蒙特大学计算机科学教授，机器人专家，研究的主要作者Josh Bongard说。“从这个角度说它是个机器人，但很显然它也是一个由未更改基因的青蛙细胞生成的有机体。”
Bongard said they found that the xenobots, which were initially sphere-shaped and made from around 3,000 cells, could replicate. But it happened rarely and only in specific circumstances. The xenobots used "kinetic replication" -- a process that is known to occur at the molecular level but has never been observed before at the scale of whole cells or organisms, Bongard said.
Bongard称他们发现xenobot最开始是由3000个细胞组成的球形，是可以复制的。但这种情况很罕见并进在某些特定环境中发生。Xenobot的生成使用了“运动繁殖”—一种仅发生在分子阶段，而从未在整个细胞或有机体阶段的过程。
With the help of artificial intelligence, the researchers then tested billions of body shapes to make the xenobots more effective at this type of replication. The supercomputer came up with a C-shape that resembled Pac-Man, the 1980s video game. They found it was able to find tiny stem cells in a petri dish, gather hundreds of them inside its mouth, and a few days later the bundle of cells became new xenobots.
在人工智能的帮助下，研究人员测试了几十亿种形状为让xenobot更有效地以这种方式自我繁殖。超级计算机最终算出了仿照1980年代的电子游戏“吃豆人”的形状。研究发现它们能够找到培养皿中微小的干细胞，并将数百个小干细胞集中到嘴里，几天后这一堆的小细胞变成了新的xenobot活体机器人。
"The AI didn't program these machines in the way we usually think about writing code. It shaped and sculpted and came up with this Pac-Man shape," Bongard said.
"The shape is, in essence, the program. The shape influences how the xenobots behave to amplify this incredibly surprising process."
“人工智能并没有用我们通常认为的写代码的方式给这些机器设置程序。而是造型，雕刻，最终形成了”吃豆人“的形状。这个形状从本质上来说是个程序，而这个程序影响了xenobot的行为，以这种不可思议的方式繁殖。“Bbgard说。
The xenobots are very early technology -- think of a 1940s computer -- and don't yet have any practical applications. However, this combination of molecular biology and artificial intelligence could potentially be used in a host of tasks in the body and the environment, according to the researchers. This may include things like collecting microplastics in the oceans, inspecting root systems and regenerative medicine.
While the prospect of self-replicating biotechnology could spark concern, the researchers said that the living machines were entirely contained in a lab and easily extinguished, as they are biodegradable and regulated by ethics experts.
Xenobot属于非常初期的技术，就像1940年代的电脑，还没有任何实际应用。但是根据研究人员的说法，这种细胞生物与人工智能的结合很有可能应用在很多人体和环境相关的任务中。像是应用于海洋中的微塑料收集，和根系统及再生机器的检查等。
词汇：
reproduce v. 复制，再制造，繁殖，生殖
stem n. （植物、灌木的）茎，干
stem cell 干细胞
claw n. （动物的）爪子；螯，钳
blob n. 一滴，一抹
unveil v. （首次）公开，除去面纱，显露
self-heal 自我治愈
biological adj. 生物的，生物学的
biology 生物学
astounded adj. 受惊骇的；被震惊的
co-lead 共同领导的
liberate v. 解放，解救；使自由
embryo 胚胎，胚芽
figure out 解决，算出，想出
apparently 显然，明显地
organism n. 生物，有机体
unspecialized a. 非专门化的，非专业化的
scrap v. 作废料处理，报废, 放弃
incubate v. 孵化；培养
manipulation n. 操纵，控制
act on one's own 按照自己的意愿行事，自作主张
unmodified 未更改的
initially 开始，最初
replicate v. 复制，重复，折叠
kinetic adj. [力] 运动的；活跃的
molecular adj. 分子的，与分子有关的
at the scale of ……规模
artificial intelligence 人工智能
resemble v. 像，与…相似
petri dish 培养皿
bundle n. 束，捆，包
sculpt v. 造型，雕刻
in essence 本质上；其实；大体上
amplify v. 放大，扩大，增强
microplastic 微塑料
regenerative adj. 再生的，更生的；更新的
extinguish v. 熄灭，消灭，灭绝
biodegradable a. 可生物降解的