The Next Phase of Biological Evolution is being Engineered…by People

A look into the future of laboratory work.

Researchers stare into a dish filled with oozing amoeba, and look through a microscope filled with twitching paramecia. They watch as these newly born organisms swim through their petri containers. Later, they watch clusters of stem and heart cells from the xenopus laevis frog — an entirely new life form; a biological robot — work collectively to digest and move pieces of microplastic from a small aqueous solution, and self heal when they are…