frogs – BioQuakes

30th Medical Group upgrades biological diagnostic system

Scientists working in a tissue culture room, similar to where these robot frogs were born.

Yes, you read that title right. A team at the University of Vermont has figured out how to make robot frogs. These life forms are only millimeters long and are neither a living organism or robot. Currently, they can move toward a target and heal themselves after being injured, but not much else. One of their creators, Joshua Bongard, referred to them as “Novel living machines” and also said, “They’re neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It’s a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism.” The new creature was designed on a supercomputer at the University of Vermont, but was actually assembled and tested by biologists at Tufts University.

A picture of a supercomputer, much like the one used at the University of Vermont that made all of this possible.

The creators of this new form of life see many different opportunities for it to do good, like searching out radiation, or gathering microplastics from the oceans, or even clearing plaque from arteries. Genetically engineering organisms has always been a widespread thing, but this is the first ever time that something was genetically modified from the ground up. The supercomputer at the University of Vermont ran hundreds of algorithms to test the optimal design for the organism, it would take many types of cells and put them into a bunch of forms and body shapes. Until they were finally able to decide on the optimal body type, thanks to the help of this computer. After the shape was decided the scientists at Tufts then incubated each cell on its own then used tiny forceps and an electrode in order to merge the cells together. They were then assembled into a form never seen before in nature, they were able to move in coherent fashion, but struggled from getting up from their backs like a beetle or a newborn baby.

Personally, I think the biggest use for this technology is drug delivery throughout the body. Certain medicines for certain diseases that only affect a certain region of the body need to be delivered directly to the source, and taking it orally, or even through injection cannot get it there with the effectiveness that something like a frog carrying a certain treatment like a mailman could, which could mean a lot for medicine. These robots would also be the perfect messengers because they can rapidly heal themselves, since they are comprised of stem cells, if they were to be attacked by the immune system, and because after 7 days they can be programmed to stop working and become regular dead skin cells. So, in turn, they are both biodegradable and effective. Robot frogs are cool, but there is also a lot of uses for them, and a lot of ways this silly invention can help the world.

Mix some water and cornstarch. We’ve all made it in science class: Oobleck! It’s that weird solid-ish liquidy substance that feels like wet putty in your hands. And it has more in common with a frog’s saliva than you think (partially because it’s a little odd if you’re constantly thinking about frog saliva, but you should be because it’s really cool!!!).

A Ph.D. student Alexis C. Noel and her supervisor David L. Hu at Georgia Tech studied and published their findings in Royal Society Interface. on how, by the laws of physics, a frog’s tongue catches its prey.

The duo was engaged in some hardcore, in-depth, scholarly research scavanging Youtube for the most ground breaking viral videos of the century when they had a spark of inspiration coming from an unlikely source: a video of a frog destroying all our high scores at a game of Ant Smasher with its long tongue (see this is why all homework should be to watch Youtube videos).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davemedia/9691234326

These two individuals became curious just how a frog’s quick and sticky tongue physically was able to catch its prey. They first had to find a high-speed camera, which they used at the Atlanta Botanical Garden and Zoo Atlanta, to record frog tongues in motion since the whole event takes place in the blink of an eye. They also tested saliva and tongue tissue samples and with data on the speed of the tongue and the viscosity of frogs’ saliva, developed a computer simulation to test their hypotheses.

Their results were as follows: frog saliva just like oobleck is a non-Newtonian Fluid!

Non-Newtonian fluids change their viscosity depending on the speed (shear rate) at which the liquid flows. Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid because when it is undisturbed it acts more like a liquid but if you squeeze it with a fist, it behaves more like a solid.

Frog saliva, which is usually 50,000 times stickier than that of humans, initially behaves less like a liquid. However, the force of the impact between the frog’s tongue and its prey is so great it causes the saliva to liquify more. Thus, the saliva gets into every crevice and covers the insect. When the saliva re-solidifies, the frog has a strong grip on the insect so it can reel it back in.

Of course, there is just one more issue. The frog now needs to release the insect from its tongue so that it can swallow it. To do so, it violently sucks in its eyes, creating a huge force that once again liquifies the saliva, releasing the insect.

So, there you go! That’s the secret to a frog’s saliva. But after reading this you might be thinking: that’s such a random thing to research! Well, the researchers note that this mechanism could be replicated in the development of robots made out of soft materials, a large technology field developing. They believe that this technology could help the robots made out of light and more flexible materials better grip items.

What other technologies do you think this research could aid?

BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

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