LogInScientists made a disturbing smiling face out of human skin cells.
I feel like I have to give this one a content warning for creepy imagery. Proceed at your own risk.
That Terminator future is closer than we think, as proven by researchers who want robots to wear human skin. A new experiment not only created a face made of human skin cells but also made the disturbing creature smile.
The tissue is a "cultured mix of human skin cells grown in a collagen scaffold and placed on top of a 3D-printed resin base," says New Scientist. This is not the first such invention, but this one contains the equivalent of the ligaments beneath our skin, which make it strong and flexible, allowing the robot to show emotions to better communicate with us, puny humans.
The ligament equivalents were made by perforating the robot’s resin base and allowing small v-shaped cavities to fill with living tissue. The skin is connected to a robotic face moved by rods connected to the base.
"Being able to recreate wrinkle formation on a palm-sized laboratory chip can simultaneously be used to test new cosmetics and skincare products that aim to prevent, delay or improve wrinkle formation," said Michio Kawai, who performed the work at the University of Tokyo.
"The lack of sensing functions and the absence of blood vessels to supply nutrients and moisture means it cannot survive long in the air," he added. To help it, researchers need to incorporate neural mechanisms and perfusion channels into the skin tissue.
New Scientist
Science is great, but looking at this pink abomination, I don't want it to take this next step, however useful it will be. Hopefully, it will be a little more presentable in the future (just add some eyelids, come on.)
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