<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3EN6Py_0vcTgC7v00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3EN6Py_0vcTgC7v00" width="994" height="559" ></figure><p>Life and death aren't the be-all and end-all states of biological existence—a third state is likely somewhere in between. According to new research, cells from a dead organism can often take on new roles and responsibilities unrelated to their original purpose. Sometimes, this allows cells to "transform" into multicellular organisms born from the deceased organism.</p><p>Microbiologists and medical experts from across the United States systematically reviewed studies involving cells that have effectively been "revived" after death. Some of these studies involved "xenobots," or clusters of stem cells from deceased animals programmed to take on a new biological job. One such xenobot was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/12/01/1060027395/robots-xenobots-living-self-replicating-copy">created</a> in 2021 when scientists gathered skin cells from a dead frog in a petri dish. The cells began reproducing—not individually, but collectively, resulting in copies of the original xenobot. They even swept up loose cells to do so. This experiment gave rise to a new term: <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2112672118">kinematic self-replication</a>.</p><div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-tKlIZXHiOo?si=BNGoR1kGMOofK4vI" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div><p>In another study factored into the researcher's review, isolated lung cells removed from a deceased human could form <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/anthrobots-scientists-create-tiny-biological-robots-from-human-cells/">anthrobots</a>. These multicellular, locomotive organisms behaved differently than the original cells would have in the lung; they also navigated their surroundings, repaired themselves when damaged, and got to work repairing injured neuron cells placed in their immediate vicinity. Though the anthrobots only survived for a few weeks, there was no question that they had taken on a "new life" after the death of their original host organism.</p><p>"Taken together, these findings demonstrate the inherent plasticity of cellular systems and challenge the idea that cells and organisms can evolve only in predetermined ways," wrote microbiologist Peter Noble and bioinformatics researcher Alex Pozhitkov in an <a href="https://theconversation.com/biobots-arise-from-the-cells-of-dead-organisms-pushing-the-boundaries-of-life-death-and-medicine-238176">article</a> for The Conversation. "The third state suggests that organismal death may play a significant role in how life transforms over time."</p><p>That's not <i>all</i> it would play a role in. In their <a href="https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/physiol.00004.2024">paper</a> for the journal <i>Physiology</i>, Noble, Pozhitkov, and their colleagues remark that their research "has the potential to transform regenerative medicine, redefine legal death, and provide insights into life’s physiological limits." If research continues to suggest that <a href="https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/289822-partially-revived-dead-pig-heads-understand-brain-death">life and death</a> aren't really all there is, it could crack open how we view basic biology and introduce a slew of ethical concerns for the medical research field. Some research teams, for instance, rely on our current delineation between life and death to perform experimental procedures that involve <a href="https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/338663-scientists-successfully-revive-dead-organs-in-pigs">"reviving" dead animals' organs</a> for hypothetical future transplants. </p></div></body>

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Study Suggests 'Third State' of Existence Beyond Life and Death

Life and death aren't the be-all and end-all states of biological existence—a third state is likely somewhere in between. According to new research, cells from a dead organism can often take on new roles and responsibilities unrelated to their original purpose. Sometimes, this allows cells to \"transform\" into multicellular organisms born from the deceased organism.

Life and death aren't the be-all and end-all states of biological existence—a third state is likely somewhere in between. According to new research, cells from a dead organism can often take on new roles and responsibilities unrelated to their original purpose. Sometimes, this allows cells to "transform" into multicellular organisms born from the deceased organism.