In sci-fi films such as'Frankenstein' and'Re-Animator', human bodies are brought back to life, existing in a freakish condition between life and death. While this sounds like the stuff of fantasy, a new study says a'third state' of existence really does exist in modern biology. According to the researchers, the third state is where the cells of a dead organism continue to function after the organism's death. Amazingly, after the organism's demise, its cells are gaining new capabilities that they did not possess in life, the biologists say. If more experiments with the cells from dead animals – including humans – show they can enter the third state, they could'redefine legal death'.

Scientists have developed tiny robots using human cells that could one day patrol our bodies, searching for and healing diseased cells and tissue. So-called'anthrobots,' assembled from human cells can repair damage to brain cells in a dish, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Advanced Science. Scientists at Tufts University in Massachusetts developed the SIZE robots to heal diseases, but foresee the technology repairing cell and tissue damage from conditions such as Alzheimer's. These bots - whose name means'human robots' - were made from human airway cells. To build the anthrobots, scientists started with samples of the cells that line human lungs.