DNA robots could deliver drugs and hunt viruses inside your body
DNA robots are emerging as tiny programmable machines that could one day deliver drugs, hunt viruses, and build molecular-scale devices. By borrowing ideas from traditional robotics and combining them with DNA folding techniques, scientists are creating structures that can move and act with precision. These robots can be guided using chemical reactions or external signals like light and magnetic fields.
Artificial intelligence is transforming biology and medicine by accelerating the discovery of new drugs and proteins and making it easier to design and manipulate DNA, the building blocks of life. But as with most new technologies, there is a potential downside. The same AI tools could be used to develop…
Robots are increasingly being used in manufacturing, agriculture and health care. But programming a team of robots to carry out individual tasks raises a question: How can robots learn from other robots if they are built differently? A multi-institutional team including Chongjie Zhang, an associate professor of computer science and…
Today's robots are stuck—their bodies are usually closed systems that can neither grow nor self-repair, nor adapt to their environment. Now, scientists at Columbia University have developed robots that can physically "grow," "heal," and improve themselves by integrating material from their environment or from other robots.