Are we on the brink of creating artificial life?

With 100 billion neurons and 37 trillion cells, the human body is simply too complex to be artificially designed by modern computers.

But in the quest to create artificial life, what if we started a lot smaller? That’s what team of scientists has done, creating a replica of the simplest form of life we know.

The worm Caenorhabditis elegans has just 300 neurons and around 1,000 cells - and now a robot has been created that mimics the actions of this simple organism.

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The OpenWorm team from California is making a 'digital' worm. Their project is recreating the neurons and cells in C. elegans, the simplest organism we know of. By making a digital worm the team hope to create artificial life. They have implanted the digital 'mind' of the worm into a Lego machine (shown)

The OpenWorm project, a global effort including researchers from the US and UK, is attempting to create the world’s first digital animal.

Earlier this year they ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of a worm you can download onto your computer.
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And they have also created a robot that mimics the actions of a real-life worm.

C. elegans is one of the simplest forms of life we know, thanks to its limited neurons and cells, and thus researchers have been able to accurately map its body.

The worm, though simple, contains 80 per cent of the same genes as humans and can be studied as a more basic version of complex life.

With a brain, stomach and bodily functions, the worm has provided scientists with a way to study life on a much smaller and more manageable scale.

In this latest project the researchers mapped the entire physiology of a C. elegans organism.

They then recreated the worm’s brain, cells and more in digital form, complete with neurons ‘firing’ to make decisions.



Scientists re-create worm brain with Lego machine




Earlier this year the OpenWorm project ran a successful digital campaign to fund their digital worm (shown). Next year people will be able to buy and download their own worm for use on computers. The artificial creature accurately recreates the cells and neurons in a real C. elegans worm


The ultimate goal of the project is to give people access to their own digital worm called WormSim to study on their computers through the OpenWorm project.

Following the successful Kickstarter campaign, this should be available next year.

But they have also inserted the artificial brain of the worm into a Lego machine, specifically a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot.

By recreating the 302 neurons and 959 cells of this tiny nematode worm, the robot can then be left to ‘mimic’ the actions of a real-life worm.

This means it moves around, runs into obstacles like walls and also turns.

The robot is very basic for now, and does not possess the ability to perform more complex functions such as eating.

It’s an important step, though, to creating artificial life that can think for itself.

While this worm is a very basic form of life, it may be a precursor to making much more complex animals.

This will be a huge undertaking, though - even a mouse has 22 million neurons in its brain.

‘The mere act of trying to put a working model together causes us to realise what we know and what we don't know,’ John Long, a roboticist and neuroscientist at Vassar College in New York State, told New Scientist.


The Caenorhabditis elegans nematode (scanning electron microscope image shown) is only around 0.04 inches (1mm) in length, is transparent and feeds on bacteria, such as E. coli. The worm has been the focus of huge amounts of research and was the first multi-celled organism to have its entire genome mapped





Creating an aritifical brain (stock image left) is viewed as being the first step to creating artificial intelligence. Some experts even believe that the key to one day inhabiting far away planets is to get rid of the body altogether, such as how cartoon villain Krang (right), from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, did


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Nato commander warns Russia could control whole Black Sea

Nato's top military commander, Gen Philip Breedlove, has warned that Russian "militarisation" of the annexed Crimea Peninsula could be used to exert control over the whole Black Sea.

Speaking in Kiev, Gen Breedlove said Russian military assets being installed in Crimea would have an effect on "almost the entire Black Sea".

Mr Breedlove is in Ukraine for high-level talks with Ukrainian leaders.

Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014.

Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday that it had deployed a batch of 14 military jets to Crimea, as part of a squadron of 30 that will be stationed on the peninsula.

An initial batch of fighter jets were flown to Crimea's Belbek air base "from military air bases in Krasnodar Territory," Russian agency Interfax reported.

Gen Breedlove had said earlier on Tuesday that a large number of Russian troops were also active inside Ukraine, training and advising separatist rebels.

Russia has continued to deny allegations from western countries that it played any direct role in the conflict in Ukraine, which has claimed more than 4,317 lives.

President Vladimir Putin said that Russia "poses no threat to anyone" and would "resist efforts to draw it into geopolitical intrigue," Russia's Tass news agency reported on Wednesday.




Credit to BBC

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Scientist admits he is 'terrified' of the technology being developed to stop global warming

A climate scientist has said he is ‘terrified’ of the futuristic technologies he is helping to develop in a bid to slow global warming.

British academics have spent £5.4 million ($8.5 million) in the last five years on taxpayer-funded ‘geoengineering’ projects to stop the effects of climate change.

Dr Matthew Watson, lead investigator of a £1.8million ($2.8 million) project to pump chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays, said using such technologies will become inevitable if humanity fails to stop global warming.



Dr Watson from Bristol University said we should be wary of interfering with nature on a planetary scale - known as geoengineering. It involves changing our planet to counteract effects of climate change. Earth is shown here pictured from space

The Bristol University academic has already suffered a major setback, when much-trumpeted plans to send a huge balloon into the air to test his scheme was scrapped over a patenting dispute.

Yesterday he admitted that despite the millions already spent on research, scientists are still decades from seeing their dreams turn into reality.

And he said they could indeed be dangerous.

The schemes could see rainfall patterns change, droughts spread across the world and the ozone layer damaged beyond repair.

‘Personally, this stuff terrifies me,’ he said.

‘Whilst it is clear that temperatures could be reduced during deployment, the potential for misstep is considerable.

‘By identifying risks, we hope to contribute to the evidence base around geoengineering that will determine whether deployment, in the face of the threat of climate change, has the capacity to do more good than harm.’

But he added that it would be ‘unethical’ not to try the technology.

‘If we ever deploy these technologies it will be the closest indication yet that we've failed as planetary stewards.

‘But there is a point at which not deploying some technologies would be unethical.

‘It's a watershed for our relationship with the Earth and with nature. It fundamentally changes the way seven billion people are going to interact with the world, and I'm not sure the system is going to be controllable in the way we want.’

Three taxpayer-funded schemes will today publish the results of five years of research into geoengineering.

Each report will confirm that we are many years away from seeing any project work outside the laboratory.

One of the touted projects includes spraying low-level clouds with sea salt to make them reflective to the sun; another would pump aerosols or sulphur particles into the atmosphere to disperse sunlight; and others would see greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide sucked out of the air to reduce global warming.

Credit to dailymail.co.uk

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