xenobot

[zee-noh-bot]

noun

1. a microscopic programmable organism made of living tissue that is grown in a lab.

   Potential uses of these xenobots could include picking up microplastics in the ocean.

Word History and Origins

Origin of xenobot¹

First recorded in 2015–20; blend of Xeno(pus laevis), the African clawed frog, and (ro)bot ( def. )

Example Sentences

As of this writing, the xenobot remains homely and lab-bound, whereas the “Curio” — the theoretical center of Levin’s new novel, “Bubblegum” — is a mass-produced commodity of weaponized cuteness, a kind of unholy hybrid of Giga Pet and Mogwai and Turing machine: velvety soft, forearm-length, “a flesh-and-bone robot that thinks it’s your friend®!” Still, the question this admirably bonkers and fitfully phenomenal book jazz-hands its way around is more or less the one now mooted by reality: Where does “functioning” end and life begin?

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A xenobot, derived from the skin cells of frog embryos, at an early stage of development in the laboratory.Credit...

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Of greater concern, they said, was how xenobot toxicity, life span and the hypothetical ability to someday reproduce would be assessed and regulated.

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A xenobot lives for only about a week, feeding on the small platelets of yolk that fill each of its cells and would normally fuel embryonic development.

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The "xenobot," which is 1 millimeter wide, is described as a "reconfigurable organism," according to research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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