Amoeba-Like Robot Programmed With DNA

Living things: They're most inspiring, but also difficult things to try to replicate in robotics. With that aim, researchers in Japan have managed to design a tiny robotic system that moves like a living cell. The scientists described the robot last week in the journal Science Robotics. The system, called a molecular robot, is about the size and consistency of an amoeba. It is a fluid-filled sac containing only biological and chemical components--about 27 of them, says Shin-ichiro Nomura, a bioengineer at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan and one of the robot's inventors.