Creating and Maintaining Chemical Artificial Life by Robotic Symbiosis

We present a robotic platform based on the open source RepRap 3D printer that can print and maintain chemical artificial life in the form of a dynamic, chemical droplet. The robot uses computer vision, a self-organizing map, and a learning program to automatically categorize the behavior of the droplet that it creates. The robot can then use this categorization to autonomously detect the current state of the droplet and respond. The robot is programmed to visually track the droplet and either inject more chemical fuel to sustain a motile state or introduce a new chemical component that results in a state change (e.g., division). Coupling inexpensive open source hardware with sensing and feedback allows for replicable real-time manipulation and monitoring of nonequilibrium systems that would be otherwise tedious, expensive, and error-prone. This system is a first step towards the practical confluence of chemical, artificial intelligence, and robotic approaches to artificial life

Transport of Live Cells under Sterile Conditions Using a Chemotactic Droplet

© 2018 The Author(s). 1-Decanol droplets, formed in an aqueous medium containing decanoate at high pH, become chemotactic when a chemical gradient is placed in the external aqueous environment. We investigated if such droplets can be used as transporters for living cells. We developed a partially hydrophobic alginate capsule as a protective unit that can be precisely placed in a droplet and transported along chemical gradients. Once the droplets with cargo reached a defined final destination, the association of the alginate capsule and decanol droplet was disrupted and cargo deposited. Both Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis cells survived and proliferated after transport even though transport occurred under harsh and sterile conditions

EvoBot: An Open-Source, Modular, Liquid Handling Robot for Scientific Experiments

Commercial liquid handling robots are rarely appropriate when tasks change often, which is the case in the early stages of biochemical research. In order to address it, we have developed EvoBot, a liquid handling robot, which is open-source and employs a modular design. The combination of an open-source and a modular design is particularly powerful because functionality is divided into modules with simple, well-defined interfaces, hence customisation of modules is possible without detailed knowledge of the entire system. Furthermore, the modular design allows end-users to only produce and assemble the modules that are relevant for their specific application. Hence, time and money are not wasted on functionality that is not needed. Finally, modules can easily be reused. In this paper, we describe the EvoBot modular design and through scientific experiments such as basic liquid handling, nurturing of microbial fuel cells, and droplet chemotaxis experiments document how functionality is increased one module at a time with a significant amount of reuse. In addition to providing wet-labs with an extendible, open-source liquid handling robot, we also think that modularity is a key concept that is likely to be useful in other robots developed for scientific purposes

The Machine–Organism Distinction

The idea that analysis of organisms can proceed by distinguishing organisms from machines is common to many areas of philosophy. This thesis argues that our search for a philosophy of organisms should not proceed by defining or relying on a Machine–Organism Distinction (MOD). We are often able to take biological theories that are thought to characterize organ- isms, such as theories of organismal autonomy and stability, and apply them to machines. I argue that we should not provide an analysis of organisms according to an MOD because there is no distinction available that holds up to scrutiny and evidence. There have been several major attempts to provide an MOD. I divide these in consecutive chapters according to the property of organisms offered as an MOD: teleology (Nicholson 2013), autonomy (Mossio and Moreno 2015), stochasticity (Skillings 2015; Godfrey-Smith 2016) and pro- cessual stability (Dupré and Nicholson 2018). I address these major attempts to provide an MOD by showing how each fails to provide an analysis of organisms that distinguishes them from machines. To do this, I examine a diversity of machines and organisms that serve as naturalistic counterexamples. Discoveries in molecular biology and ecology, as well as developments in robotics and biotechnology, show the failure of MODs in contemporary philosophy and biology. Moreover, not only does the MOD consistently fail, but philosophical arguments that rely upon MODs consistently misrepresent organisms themselves. I conclude with the idea that we should consider machines not as external to, or distinguished from, organisms, but as proper objects of biological science.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Cambridge Commonwealth and European Trust

State Funded Research Annual Report FY09

The University of Maine System is required to submit in January of each year an annual report on the utilization of state research appropriations for operations and state research capital bonds. The report is to cover the most recently completed fiscal year