A team of scientists — including UVM professor of computer science Josh Bongard and his former doctoral student Sam Kriegman — have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction.
They applied their discovery to create the first-ever, self-replicating living robots, Xenobots. Their research, presented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on November 29, led to a flood of global media attention and news stories.
Leading the coverage, USA Today published a story “Scientists made tiny xenobots out of frog cells. Now they say those robots can reproduce,” that included a UVM-produced video. Reporter Katie Hunt at CNN quoted UVM’s Bongard: "Most people think of robots as made of metals and ceramics but it's not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people.”
Science Friday, the widely syndicated program aired by radio stations across the country, spoke with Josh Bongard last year in a wide-ranging conversation about Xenobots. Host Ira Flatow invited him back for another interview about the new work.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation also invited Bognard back for a second long interview with Bob McDonald for their flagship science program, Quirks & Quarks.
Other major news outlets covered the new research including NPR, Voice of America, Newsweek, and the Washington Post. National magazines picked up the story with pieces in Smithsonian, Forbes, People Magazine, and Fast Company.
Science media and magazines produced extensive coverage including stories in The Scientist, Science News, New Scientist, Engadget, Popular Science, Gizmodo, Inverse, and the very popular site: IFLScience.
Other outlets and newspapers covered the Xenobots including: New York Post, New Atlas, The Hill, Business Insider and The Daily Beast.
International coverage ranged over the whole world with stories in The Guardian, Radio Canada, Yahoo! News (UK), The Times of London, The Hindu, The Daily Mail, The Week (UK), Olhar Digital (Portugal), il Messaggero (Italy), Herald Sun (Australia), leBigData.fr (France), Heise.de (Germany), CHIP (Turkey), SindoNews.com (Indonesia), India Times, Engadget (Japan) and hundreds of other outlets.